Nextweek Mad Planet will debut MELT, a weekly Tuesday night electronic music seriescurated by the hard-edged experimental electronica musician The Demix, known off stage as Paul Fuhr. In keeping with Fuhr’s eclectic tastes, MELTwill host a broader variety of acts than most electronic weeklies, including amix of DJs and live bands.
“I’mtrying to spotlight anything that’s electronic or influenced by electronicmusic, pretty much any act that experiments with whatever genre they are, ormusicians who go outside the box and explore the fringe,” Fuhr says.
MELT’s inaugural event on Jan. 11 will feature The Demix as well as technoboundary-pusher DJ Screendoor and fuzz fiend Erik Void. The Jan. 18 bill willbe headlined by Lovanova“They’re a four-piece rock bad led by this dirty Hammondorgan, so their sound is like this futuristic, lounge prog-rock,” Fuhr saysandwill include a dance set from RichDad and a drum and bass battle.
For the third installment on Jan. 25, Madison’s post-rock band All TinyCreatures will build on their already heavy electronic undertones for theirfirst all-electronic set. They'll be supported on the bill by adoptahighway and Jim Schoenecker’sPressboard project.
“I’minviting musicians to do a different kind of set than they would normally do,”Fuhr says. “You’re not going to hear the same music here each week, though theevent will definitely keep the same vibe.”
Though the event will cater to some of the more niche corners of electronicmusic, Fuhr says he’s trying to balance each bill so it’s accessible to generalaudiences as well; most weeks he’ll perform supporting DJ sets that will bemuch more inclusive than his typical Demix material. He’s also mindful of thechallenges of putting on a weekly event on one of the traditionally sleepiernights of the week.
“I’m well aware that doing something on Tuesday night can be hard, so we’regoing to keep the cover lowit’ll be five bucksand we’ll start each event atnine,” Fuhr says. “We always want to have the weekly guest performers doneplaying by midnight or 12:30, so the people who have to can get home and don’tfeel pressure to stay out to 2 a.m.”
