Sci-Fi Set: See a Live Reactable Performance this Saturday Night at Beer Mania

If you're into electronic music but are bored with watching "DJs" rhythmically bobbing behind a laptop or CD consoles, head over to Beer Mania this Saturday night to check out Beijing's own "Kelvin Cl0ne" performing on what is quite possibly the city's only real Reactable console.

Invented by a group of hardcore electronic music nerds at Universitat Pompeau Fabra in Barcelona, the Reactable consists of a "tabletop tangible user interface" and a striking backlit surface on which blocks called "Tangibles" are placed that are used to manipulate sounds to create music and sound effects.

Resembling something you'd find on the bridge of a Starship, this souped-up synthesizer has been around for a few years and was first unveiled to the public during a Bjork tour back in 2007. Since then it's been used in performances at various music festivals, including Ars Electronica and Sonar, but until this summer it had yet to be used in a live performance in Beijing. To get an idea of just how much fun it is to play around with, download the iPad app at the iTune store and check out some of the free tables of loops they have in the online community (or better yet, upload your own).

The performance starts at 9.30 and will be a "50/50 original/improv/live mix" according to Kelvin ClOne (a.k.a. Justin Ward).

Saturday is also promising to be a big night at the D-Space 758 in 798, site of the Audi Urban Electronics showcase, which is being curated by Josh Feola, Lulu Chow and Markus Schneider of Sinotronics, and will feature performances by Robert Henke (a.k.a. Monolake, the co-creator of Ableton Live) along with Dead J, Wang Meng, FAR/∞, SU, and FM3. You can still RSVP for a free ticket by e-mailing your full name and phone number to lulu.chow@agemod.com.