In a new feature by Offbeat, Derek Vincent Smith of Pretty Lights goes in-depth about the evolution of live instrumentation in Pretty Lights shows. As a pioneer of using a live band during his performances, Smith has been constantly refining and evolving how to incorporate other musicians into his act since the inception of the the Analog Future Band back in 2013, Pretty Light’s first exploration of the idea. After the Analog Future Band disbanded last year, Smith put together a new band, Pretty Lights Live, to help him continue innovating on his integration of other musicians during his Pretty Lights sets.
Pretty Lights Live features Alvin Ford Jr. (drums), Brandon Butler (keys), Borahm Lee (keys) and Chris Karns (turntables) in addition to Smith and focuses on creating fully improvisational electronic music, a deviation from former Pretty Lights projects during which the live band would perform pre-composed segments in addition to playing on top of produced tracks. Instead, Pretty Lights Live brings a more freeform aspect to its shows because of its focus on group improvisation and, more or less, group jamming. The keystone to this live improvisation is “flips,” moments when Smith slowly fades out a produced track and the band takes over, switching over to a more electronic sound and moving through a completely live, improvised instrumental segment.
To better illustrate what a “flip” is, Smith recently put together a playlist of dozens of newly released examples of them from live concerts over the past year. You can check out the playlist and hear ’em for yourself below.
[H/T Offbeat]