ZOMG! IT'S MONDAY! WTF?

I spent the weekend working out which songs from the rather extensive Micronaut oeuvre I’m going to build a set with, and arranging and stemming same. Part of the problem with the Micronaut catalog is that most of the material (except for the first record and the most recent three releases) was done with a specific purpose, generally a video game or television show. As such, the vast majority are quite dated, stylistically, and don’t really work in a modern performance context.

I’ve been steadily modernizing some of the older tracks for inclusion in the Many Moons compendium release, so I’ve got the ones I’ve already done to draw upon, conveniently. Even so, the set will be centered around newer material from Capacitor and Resistor, though, plus at least two tracks from the upcoming Transformer. The nice thing about the nature of Micronaut’s past is that I don’t have to play a selection of “hits.” That’s what really made SMG not a lot of fun towards the end, as we were trying to play new songs we’re quite proud of, and people kept yelling “SINS!” or “HOLE IN THE GROUND!” the whole set. Not a problem with Micronaut.

But anyhow, with such a large catalog to choose from (there are over a hundred published Micronaut tracks) it’s just a matter of finding the right flow. I like themed sets; one of the hardest SMG sets to pull off was the last tour we did, where we did the entire set in reverse chronological order; that was an interesting challenge. With this Micronaut set, I’m doing two tempo builds, which is something that I’ve seen other electronic acts do (notably Underworld, who commonly use this mechanism) to good effect. I also, in this case, have to pay attention to the harmonic relationship between the keys of songs, so they can overlap if I feel the urge.

Do you find, when designing a set, that you do stylistic groupings like this? Or do you do it for mechanical ease? I suppose it really depends on the kind of music you make. Much easier for an indie rock band to change things up on a whim than a strictly electronic project, I imagine.