Tycho is the musical half of San Francisco-based electronic music producer, Scott Hansen. The other half is ISO50, the pseudonym he uses for his graphic design work. Another thing you should know about Hansen is that he’s represented by Ghostly International, a label known for hand-picking musicians with defined visions and unique identities, who are meticulous about their craft and usually a few long strides ahead of their peers. Check out their site for proof – fittingly, it’s one of the coolest record label sites out there.
Some people go to electronic concerts for the glow sticks, the wild dance sessions or to be put under a hypnotic spell for an hour. While all of those reasons came into play Saturday night at the Crofoot, Tycho’s set had a more personal and intimate quality than any electronic show I’ve seen.
“Tycho changed my life,” one fan told me. “You don’t need drugs to enjoy this, it’s beyond that.” She went on to explain how, since experiencing his music, she’s discovered the unbeatable high of outdoor adventure-seeking – surfing, rock climbing, mountain biking, things like that. And it makes sense: electronic music has the ability to knock you on your face, send fierce vibrations through your body, spit you out in shock and reel you back in with another heavy drop or an infectious percussive riff. But if a more transcendent, somehow natural, side of electronic music existed, that’s where you’d find Tycho.
His music has more in common with solar eclipses and sunlight reflected off water ripples than strobe lights or sweat-soaked headbands. It doesn’t toss you in a mosh pit, it pulls you to the peak of a monstrous wave and carries you back to the shore in one beautiful, sweeping motion. It usually takes Hansen about five and a half minutes to pull this off, a comfortable track length for the kind of ride he’s creating.
Most electronic shows require you to pick your poison and get lost in the music, otherwise you’ll be staring at someone hunched over a Macbook and a keyboard, clicking and knob-turning and head-nodding just enough to suggest this isn’t something they could do half asleep on their couch. I was already excited to see Tycho and, well, get lost, but the anticipation reached new levels as the stage was set: electric and acoustic guitars, bass guitars, a full drum set and three keyboards joined Hansen’s Macbook in front of a large projector screen.
This full-band setup made what could have been a glorified listening session a full-fledged concert experience. Hansen spoke few words, focusing intensely on the orchestra of keys before him, often wielding a guitar at the same time. Moving images were projected constantly on the screen, a series of vintage-y outdoors shots that were not only impressive in sequencing, color and composition, but in their effectiveness at evoking often intense feelings of nostalgia and a sort of refreshing desperation for something beautiful… be it ocean-side breeze through a car window or the revelatory new perspective from the tallest tree in your backyard. You get the idea, especially if you’ve experienced Dive, Tycho’s most recent album and the backbone of the concert.
While the technique of pairing slideshows or videos with electronic music is very common and often gimmicky, the images Tycho used seemed to be distinct counterparts to the actual music. I don’t have proof, but I’m convinced the videos were a labor of love by ISO50.
Tycho played for a little over an hour, including his three-song encore set. There was a collective feeling of trance-like awe and appreciation amongst the young crowd who, judging by the excited responses in the specific moment of time each song was first recognizable, knew Tycho’s music on a personal level. Again, if you’re one of those people, all of this probably makes a lot of sense. If not, there’s some amazing music out there that you should give a chance to. Here’s a good start:
