Orlando Electronics Puts on Monthly Shows

Jared Silvia, the musician and founder of Circuit Church, an all-purpose cassette label, events series, and Electronics subgenre in and of itself, made what seemed like a risky decision in June of last year: he was going to restart his collective’s monthly Electronics music showcase. Throughout the early stages of the pandemic, Silvia had been in constant touch with his “informal group” of modular synth and hardware enthusiasts, which included Modal Plane, Void Machine, and Zap Danger, and they were all cautiously excited to try a live show.

Circuit Church reopened on Saturday, June 26 at the Nook on Robinson, in its former Milk District location, with performances by Fatal Flower, Void Machine, and Mata Live, ranging from glitchy squiggles to healing ambient. Circuit Church was indoors on Thursdays before the epidemic, but this was a weekend night affair that spilled out onto the parking lot behind the Nook.

Silvia pulled together a transportable sound system from Craigslist and dutifully set it up, and tables and chairs were schlepped outside for artists and audience. It was a free show that started at 7 p.m., with no waiting since there was a 10 p.m. show. The time for being courteous to your neighbours has passed. And the fans did show up in the underground music equivalent of Field of Dreams.

The amount of people that came to witness Circuit Church V.1 inside the Nook or when they headlined the pavilion at Mead Botanical Garden was in the thousands. Put it down to cabin fever, luck, or a fresh appetite for innovative sound among a people deprived of live music. However, as someone who often visits left-of-the-dial events and artists, the quantity of fresh faces shocked this writer. Circuit Church has become a Saturday night tradition for many of those same people.