I'm in huge agreement with the last two posts/observations. It's a real challenge to make a one person electronic show a SHOW. Another possible view could be...
I have a friend who does pretty chill electronic shows. No visuals and very little personality involved. People go to the shows and after a few moments, begin to socialize. They still claim they loved the show as it set a very nice backdrop for them to socialize to. Personally, I'd prefer to see a show, but maybe the backdrop attitude is valid as well?
I think there is something to that. I remember Brian Eno said something about the joy of ambient is that it can just be part of the atmosphere... it can almost be ignored. Of course, that's not the best vibe to put out, when you're on a stage somewhere.
My synth duo right now has basically two styles... one is old school, beatless drony ambient, very much in that Hearts of Space mode, and then we have some other downtempo stuff like Carbon Based Lifeforms... the beats are there, but they don't dominate or beat you over the head. I think, at least at first, we're going to try to treat the two separately, in terms of where we try to play and how we market it. But part of the whole ambient trip thing for me is the whole sensory experience, so we want to have good visuals for our show (don't know what, yet), because we want it to be a part of our thing and part of the experience for the listener, not just something thrown on to distract them from the fact that sometimes, there's not a lot going on in the music.
Another element of it - I do think, from an audience perspective, it can be boring as all crap to just see two people up there with a laptop, so, even though I use sequences, (in addition to the bass pedalboard, I run a Virus TI2, a Moog Subsequent 37, an MPC Live, a Digitakt, and soon, hopefully a Hydrasynth), we make a point of making sure that there is always a live element to the music. Sometimes it may be me playing a bassline on the Moog, or some pads, or a variation on a melodic structure. It is a)more fun for both us and the viewer b)adds a layer of improv and spontaneity (as well as the risk of failure, but hey) to the performances. I don't want to be in an act that I wouldn't want to watch, myself.
The biggest frustration in this music, for me, after being a performing bassist for 34 years in lots of accessible genres, is finding places to actually play it where it will be appreciated. It's not exactly the most accessible stuff, sometimes, and we don't really get into any of the EDM thumpo stuff that's so popular with the youngun's today.
