A lifetime ago (well, back in 2010), DJ and producer Richie Hawtin, in his Plastikman guise, created the Synk app as the “official companion iPhone/iPod Touch application” of his Plastikman Live world tour that year. It was designed to not only integrate visually and sonically with his live performance on that tour but also to have an afterlife as an “atmospheric location shifter” outside of the shows.
Hawtin has had another swing with the creation of Closer – a free app for iOS and Android that is tied into his Close Combined album. It is part interactive experience and part live archive. Users can, through the app, deconstruct his show as he is playing – not only switching camera angles but also isolating particular sound layers.
“I hope [the Closer app] gives new insight into how I play and create my unique Hawtin sound,” Hawtin said in a press statement on the app’s launch. “In a world filled with DJs who are happy with the status quo of electronic music performance, I strive to push forward, challenge myself and hopefully inspire the next generation of Techno performers to continue to go beyond the norm.”
The section explaining the concept reveals that the app was developed in partnership with Electronic Beats, which is part of T-Mobile. (Electronic Beats also partnered with Gorillaz during the marketing of their Humanz album in 2017, developed an app based around “an immersive mixed-reality experience that lets you step into the band’s house”.)
“The performance setup combines a custom built mixer, digital decks, effects, drum machines and analog synthesizers,” it says. “Intimately placed cameras follow the interactions with the machines, switching between technical details and graphical abstractions. The open stage design exposes the impulsive connection between man and machines and unites sonic improvisation and visual synchronicity into a cohesive concert-like experience.” So now you know.
There is also a live streaming component within the app but it is currently listed as “coming soon”.
The main draw currently is an archive of past shows that is expected to build over time. At the time of writing, three shows from his Closed Combined tour were available (Glasgow, London and Tokyo) and they sit alongside one from Budapest on his 2017 tour, with more coming soon.
To experience this, however, you have to download files that are 3.2GB and 4.2GB in size and contain hour-long shows. Even on a good Wi-Fi connection, they take a long time to download and sponge up a lot of device storage because there are many moving parts to the interactivity, so we are sceptical about how many people will want to install such hefty files on their phone.
That said, when (eventually) downloaded, the experience and interactivity is highly impressive. The screen is split into three parts: on the top is the view of the stage from the audience that can be then swiped on to show the visuals being used; the bottom screen is also swipe-able and that lets you see the mixer, the drums or the synth; but the middle screen is an aerial shot of Hawtin and where you can switch on the decks, synths, effects and drums at will.
It is definitely one of the most impressive live focused apps we have seen for a long time and we are very interested to see how interactivity works when Hawtin starts to allow live streaming of shows. It also feels like an app you will want to return to again and again, playing around with the different configurations.
