HOT NIGHT FOR BT
Electronic dance pioneer BT heats up Club Fun…literally
text and photos by Lionel Zivan S. Valdellon

published in PHILMUSIC.com : June 2000

Last May 5, 2000 at Club Fun in Glorietta, Makati, the American electronic composer/producer/performer known as BT graced the stage and took the primarily college-age clubgoers on a crazy trip through his dreamy trance soundscapes. But because he is no DJ, there were no turntables in the performance space. Instead he played live on three keyboards while a pre-recorded mix of his compositions pulsed out of his DAT player. The effect was no less explosive than a DJ spinning vinyl.

Also, unlike a great many stone-faced DJs, the Maryland-bred BT (full name: Brian Transeau) was a frenetic character behind his rack of gear-- jumping up and down when he could, and vigorously encouraging the kids to react, to dance, to give in to the vibe.
___ Give in they did. The jampacked Club Fun was a mass of bobbing heads and jerky arms careening to BT’s insistent rhythms cradled between dreamy new age synth washes. Although the audience’s reaction was more obviously enthusiastic during the preceding trance set spun by local DJ John Robinson, the people were dancing albeit without the "whoot-whoot"s and the hands-in-the-air antics that Robinson inspires.

But make no mistake, BT’s energy was infectious. From tilting his keyboards at various angles to assimilate electric guitar antics, to pumping his hand in the air, he was rocking throughout.
___ Unfortunately, the set ended a mere hour later with BT throwing down one of his smaller keyboards in an apparent burst of emotion. Or was it a "rock star moment"? The conjectures ran rampant throughout the club. Some said maybe BT was disappointed that not enough people were dancing enthusiastically, others went "Whoa, Nine Inch Nails-ey." Yet others mentioned the heat.
___ Apparently it WAS the heat. According to organizers, the stage area where BT performed was a virtual sauna. Even if he was dressed in only a blue T-shirt and an orange jumpsuit, he appeared quite dehydrated midway through the performance. Right after he played, BT crashed on a couch backstage and did not move or utter a word for a whole 20 minutes. Technicians started to take down the keyboards soon after.

It was a too-abrupt ending for what was a truly compelling performance

What a lot of people did not realize was that he was playing live keyboards and not spinning records. The gear he was using onstage included the diminutive Korg Prophecy (which was his main keyboard and used a lot for saw wave effects), a Korg Trinity (for piano sounds and general synth pads), a Roland JP-8000 (used mainly for its arpegiattor and its weird-ass filters) and a DAT player which played a pre-recorded mix of his tunes (drum patterns, vocals and basslines included). All of the sounds ran through a 24-channel mixing board which in turn ran to the main board of the room, controlled by BT’s own sound man who sported the spikiest hair since 1984. Unfortunately, the spiky hair did not seem to help. The overall sound quality of BT’s set was not as clear as the previous DJs’ sets. In fact some tweeters in the upper section seemed to be malfunctioning, resulting in a mix that was not as clear as crystal.

Dream Boy

BT scurried through a set filled with old familiar tunes such as "Flaming June", "Content", and the club anthem "Remember", all from his second album ESCM. Included in the set were also "Godspeed" and tracks from his newest full-length album Movement in Still Life.
___ His music is always an eclectic mixture, jumping about from type to type, never really staying put-- much like its composer. From shattering jungle breakbeats, the music would typically settle into a throbbing 4/4 house beat. From dreamy, new age synthesizer pads, the keyboards would emit raw, untamed saw waves that cut through the crowd. Some songs, such as "Remember" had glorious diva vocals on them, most of his others were grinding club instrumentals with hints of nostalgia written in its melodic lines.
___ And melody is something that BT can boast of. His music, even the instrumentals, are undeniably hummable. You leave the dancefloor sweating… and whistling his compositions’ leitmotifs, floating on the sweeping emotions that his music pours out. Undeniably an after-effect of his years of classical music training, plus a reflection of the musician’s own tastes for emotive, dramatic music.
___ No wonder then that the genre that he helped build up (classifications being the way us press people pigeonhole indescribable stuff, like music) has come to be called dream house or epic house. Think Yanni rolled into the Chemical Brothers, and you might just get the drift.

It all started in Washington, D.C. where Brian Transeau was born and raised. Tinkering on the piano from the precocious age of two, he was to embark on a life surrunded by music…and keyboards.

At 13, he began a classical music regimen that would move from piano to classical string arrangement and eventually orchestration, all the while
soaking in influences as varied as New Order, Depeche Mode and Yes. His musical knowledge soon included guitars and drums, and he put it to good use gigging with a series of hardcore punk, ska, and industrial bands.

He even attended Berklee School of Music in Boston for a year but dropped out and was soon playing synthesizer for mainstream albums by Salt-N-Pepa and Tyler Collins before inevitably going solo and entering the arena of house and techno. A couple of singles under Deep Dish Records became staples in certain DJs’ set lists, notably John Digweed’s, Paul Oakenfold’s and Sasha’s.

Signing onto Oakenfold’s Perfecto Records, BT continued to make his tracks and churn out the remixes for people like Seal and Mike Oldfield. His debut album Ima was well-received in the UK. In his home territory however, it was only in 1996 when BT’s name and reputation really grabbed the spotlight. The reason: a remix for Tori Amos’ "Blue Skies" which ruled dancefloors in both the UK and US. By 1997, the musical style he helped give birth to spawned a dozen other acts, people like Robert Miles and Sash! who would milk dream house for all its worth.

A second album, ESCM (short for "Electric Sky Church Music") appeared in 1998, expanding the gem-like ideas apparent in his singles and 12-inchers into expansive 8 to 10-minute numbers that shifted emotion and style much like film soundtracks do. But they were still dance tunes anchored in the 4/4 house beat. Spiritual club music? Not exactly a common mixture of words. But apt nonetheless for the kind of introspective, almost religious, dance music in ESCM.

Nowadays, BT has his hand in a whole host of musical activities—not all of them club oriented. He’s gone into film scoring, having scored the "Pulp Fiction for ravers" movie Go and more recently Under Suspicion (starring Morgan Freeman and Gene Hackman. He’s completed a duo album with friend and DJ Sasha filled with chill-out numbers that have ethnic percussions alongside electronic sounds. He’s even done the music for a new Die Hard video game. All of this in-between a whole lot of touring.

It’s really all been about pushing the boundaries. No confinements or limitations. It’s all music after all. Thus from a strict regimen of classical, Brian Transeau has gone on to invest cold machine music with spirit. From rowdy punk music to club anthems that bring introspection into dance floors. From house tracks to film, to video games. What’s next?

Whatever it is, expect it to have soul.

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