Good tunes, good times… great candy! by Andrew Clark. photo by Sarah Bagwell.

   I can’t remember my high-school chemistry. Is pH10 acid or base? Either, in the case of New York city’s live Drum’n’Bass duo "pH10", would be appropriate. Well, phonetically anyway. Bass is blasting out of B-Side’s dangerously loud PA system. And a nice acid trip (as in, like, LSD man) would fit in perfectly with pH10’s underground club culture vibe.
   No, wait a minute, I forgot, no one does LSD any more. Kids these days with their new-fangled party drugs! And, oh yeah, isn’t "Acid" a sub-genre of electronic music? I think it involves crazy squelchy bass lines and beats, which fits well enough I guess. But who can keep track of all these electronica sub-genres anyway?!
   pH10 call their music "Fungle", as in fun jungle. Well, it certainly is fun! In and among tweaking knobs, hammering keyboards, and pushing buttons onstage, pH10 sure know how to put on a show. Props include an outrageous Viking helmet and a silver wizard’s cape (which is occasionally worn backwards). Eventually, "Clark ov Saturn" takes off most of his clothes and dives into the audience for some frenzied bootie shaking. "Recone F. Helmut" continues jamming unperturbed.
   pH10-related wackiness is definitely not content to be confined to the stage. The entire dance space is filled with decked-out club kids blowing whistles, kicking balloons around, dancing like maniacs, and generally reminding me of childhood birthday parties at Chuck E. Cheese’s. My impression is that most of them are with the band is some capacity, but they are all legitimately having fun. One of them hands me a goodie bag as I hit the dance floor.
   The package contains: a sucker, some gum, a kazoo, assorted candy, a bright green whistle on a string, a paper streamer, sparkly confetti, a purple plastic harmonica, the obligatory business card and flyer, and some other crap. I am delighted. This show rocks.
   But – oh yeah! – what about the music? Solid, solid, solid. Solid beats, solid bass, solid arrangements, solid performance. Despite the fairly frivolous fun factor of the show, Clark and Recone are serious about their composition and production. The music is great. Still, for me, it is their obvious investment in the pH10 live experience that has made this show truly memorable. A lot of live techno performance stuff sounds fine but is downright boring to watch. When pH10 hit the stage, boredom will never be a danger.

Check out http://ph10.electropolis.com for all the weirdness you can handle… and then some. Yeah, they’re from Brooklyn, so who knows when they’ll be swinging through T.O. again? But on the other hand, you’ll probably want to be prepared! Anyway, you can book them online for your next wine and cheese, where "pH10 bombs your party out and you gain mad street cred". ( http://ph10.electropolis.com/booking.html )