Radio Boy (Matthew Herbert) on Arte last night

When I downloaded bits of the "album" I wasn't really taken with it. Yeah, interesting political statement about consumerism and all that, but the music didn't connect. Wow, it's all made by sampling the sound of a Big Mac being tossed into a bin, but you only know that because you're told as much, so what's the point? However, seeing it done live, with all the music literally created from scratch before your eyes* by sampling a single 'found' object (be it a cereal box, a TV tapped with hammer, or whatever) it made a lot more sense. (Which is kind of an interesting side question - can you only "trust" music when you can internally visualise its production? If you fooled by a sample into thinking it's an acoustic sound, does it matter? Is this a "real music by real musicians" hang-over in my subconscious? Eek!)

I should say there were some limitations for Radio Boy in a live context too: with only seconds available to create something interesting, Herbert tended to get something danceable going, so all the numbers had a broadly similar dynamic. Still, great fun.

(*this is an assumption on my part - did he in fact cheat and use pre-programmed sequences to create some of the sounds? Anyone?)

Oh, Björk & Matmos did a set too - it was okay.