Star rating: ****
The last time a major counter-cultural figure came to Glasgow was when Noam Chomsky spoke at the Self-Determination and Power Event in 1990. So to have Gustav Metzger, the founding father of auto-destructive art, as the figurehead of this year's three-day festival of left-field music showed how far Instal is attempting to locate itself from any old-fashioned notions of a gig.
Metzger was the inspiration behind Self-Cancellation, in which artists, including harpist Rhodri Davies and sax player John Butcher, explored the implosive possibilities of sound. With tubas filled with sand and sounds generated from the building itself, the effect was of an alchemical cabaret-cum-science class.
There was little science involved in Energy Births Form, Saturday's three-hour extravaganza in which veteran bassist Alan Silva, sax player Donald Dietrich, and the cream of Japan's underground players attempted to blow their minds, as well as the audiences', into a state of transcendent bliss. It was a good-natured and at times persuasive racket, though Kylie Minoise's five-minute private shows got there a whole lot quicker.
Sunday's Marginal Consort event was another three-hour marathon, with a quartet of Japanese veterans conjuring up a maelstrom of junk-box din from opposite corners of the room to create an electrifying convergence of space and purpose. With such breadth of form on display, why the conservative redneck boogie of MV & EE, and old-time hippy protest music of The Golden Road and The Cherry Blossoms ended up closing the festival is a mystery.
Until, that is, a drunken guitarist collapsed on his way off the stage. Now that's what I call self-cancellation.
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