Trip-Hop Beat Meeters

“I like the whole Pop Art aspect of finding things which were already available and famous, already used,” explains Jack Dangers, leader and founder of electronic outfit Meat Beat Manifesto. “I always have. Because you’re doing something you’re not supposed to do. It’s dangerous. It’s punk rock—for me, anyway.” Dangers is referring specifically to a particular approach to visuals—which have always been an essential component of MBM’s live presentation. Since 2005, Dangers has been cataloging video footage that he’s sampled in the past as audio in his own work. On top of that, he’s also collecting video that other bands have used.

“I’ve been searching out video samples which have been used in songs I grew up listening to,” he says, citing Cabaret Voltaire’s sampling of Beatles footage from Memphis, and Husker Dü’s use of the famous “American GI, fuck you!” line from Apocalypse Now as two recent finds that fans can expect to see in the current live show.

So essentially what he’s doing is sampling samples and making collages out of existing collages.

“Yeah,” he agrees, chuckling.

Dangers is particularly excited about the exploding-head scene from the film Scanners.

“I like manipulating that one live,” he says. “Someone’s head exploding; it’s brilliant! The Fury is another one with a great exploding-head scene. Me and Ben [Stokes] both do video sampling live. Sometimes we have the same sample and go off of each other.”

Like a symphony of exploding heads?

“Exactly!” laughs Dangers. “It’s DJ style, an all-in-fun type of thing—but with exploding heads. There’s definitely a lot of humor in what we do. That’s what I’m like. I just don’t know if people get it. But it’s like the way Kraftwerk deliver their humor with those head-scratching moments.”

“Ten years ago,” he continues, “We couldn’t do this at all. But there still isn’t a video-sampling box out there. The nearest thing is a D-VJ, which is sort of like a C-DJ, where you can actually scratch with CDs. But it’s sort of like just having a turntable without a mixer. You have to put it through a mixer, but then you realize that’s not enough.”

To meet his needs, and in keeping with his digital DIY punk ethic, Dangers has software custom designed by a friend of the band. All told, MBM’s visuals rig requires four high-power laptops, while the music requirements are all covered by... one.

“Oh yeah, the music,” Dangers jokes.

Essentially consisting of Dangers triggering samples, loops and beats along with drummer Lynn Farmer (with Consolidated’s Mark Pistel on sound manipulation and the aforementioned Stokes), MBM sets out to toy with the flexibility inherent in the music, a rousing swirl of gut-level dub grooves and heady trip-hop atmospheres spiked with Dangers’ playful, kitchen-sink, anything-goes textural sensibility. Live, Dangers favors an element of improv and likes to elongate the material, which is a new possibility thanks to the Ableton Live program.

And how much of a challenge does this pose to Farmer?

“Lynn can do bloody anything,” Dangers enthuses. “He’s a jazz drummer, so this is a breeze for him to be able to play solid beats. We’ve always worked that way. But this time, we’ve got more freedom to change the tracks as we’re playing.”

April 26, Highline Ballroom, 431 W. 16th St. (betw. 9th & 10th Aves.), 212-414-5994; 9, $18.50/$20.