Zion Train at Fiddlers, Bristol

Ok so I don't really know exactly what I was expecting, but the crusty crowd certainly turned out in force for some white buoy dub at Fiddlers last night. Jah Tubby's Sound System tested the resonant frequency of the building, which I'm sure they came close to finding and they also tested the patience of the crowd as it drew near to midnight (maybe it was just me). Good music though, no real DJ-ing, just tunes with a bit of shouting when the DJ changed the record.

So eventually the 'band' turned up, complete with female bezzer who nicked their towels and water… no-one seemed to mind much. The singer was amazing, and just after I'd realised she was regurgitating old Bob Marley lyrics and was about to get all cynical, she announced that at least three of the songs we'd had so far she had never heard before.

I only wish they had a real bass player. I mean, it's all clever and stuff using a couple of decks, a Kaos Pad and an Alesis Air FX thingy (ideal for all that echoey stuff dub is made of). But with a 'puter, it all gets a bit much… when it's all about the bass lines, a bit of interest wouldn't go amiss! The horn section were pretty effective, but really it was a one man show. If this is the UK dub scene, it needs a bit of an update, if indeed it's possible - maybe they want to stay neck deep in the 80's for ever...

The bezzer got a bit upset when having realised that she wasn't part of the band, some other members of the audience jumped on stage and joined in towards the end...

For live gig downloads and more information, visit http://www.ziontrain.co.uk/1754.html.

Ben Harper at Glastonbury

(In which Ben Harper teaches a festival crowd what it means to perform)

Thought for the day: What makes a good gig? I mean a really good gig - one that gets the adrenaline running and catches your breath, brings tears to your eyes, makes you laugh out loud, inspires you and sends you back out into the world looking at everything with fresh open eyes? Something that makes you wonder how it is that bands manage to get away with songs-by-numbers as if they're miming Top Of The Pops style. One such gig was the Manics a few years ago. Who needs the band, the live experience when you've got the CD and it sounds exactly the same? I can even make it sound almost as loud at home, so why bother wasting the money?

This year's Glastonbury was full of it. Lost Prophets, Snow Patrol, Kasabian (ok I don't like their music either) and many others all did it. So many times I was left wondering how much thought they'd actually put into their festival performance, if it were actually even special to them. Maybe it's that it's become commercialised like everyone says. Maybe it's no less than people expect. Maybe if I'd paid for my ticket I would have been even more disappointed.

Ben Harper was different. You really got the impression that these guys were in it for the music, not just there 'for the fooking money' as Liam Gallagher so eloquently put it as he left the stage (not that I saw them, coz that would be silly). For blissful solo after solo, wig-outs, extended breaks, gorgeous music and energy, Ben Harper drove the audience up and up, I didn't see another crowd at the festival in such a state (until James Brown and the end of Suzanne Vega). This was the real deal, this was the festival experience, this was what people go to Glastonbury for, to have a shared experience of something really quite special with thousands of other people, all riding the same wave.

Getting a bit emotional here, but that's what music is all about: emotion. There are a few kinds of music: music that makes you dance, music that makes you think, and music that carries you away with it on waves of emotion (get a list from google), and pop (which is supposed to be dance I guess). All of these things can be ruined by the performance, the attitude of the performer, the thought that goes into the set, and the desire / reluctance to create something unique.

I believe that of all the gigs that people saw, the ones they remember are going to be the ones where this happened. Where performers like Ben Harper (and James Brown) gave them something different, allowed his band to demonstrate (sounds too technical) their skills, show what music really means, what it can really be (Nina Nastasia did this a few weeks ago - see article below). PJ Harvey played new and old songs with lots of energy in new arrangements, it felt special.

So while for me, and possibly many others Ben Harper was the stand-out gig of the festival, I'm sure there were other seminal performances that I missed, and a great many who just didn't really put in the effort, or didn't have the imagination, skill or depth to be able to. I shouldn't hope too much. But one has to wonder what artists really get out of making so little effort, and how they deal with their obvious deficiencies. 'Orbital celebrated their last ever English show (Scotland next week) with a decidedly average Orbital by Numbers set which was almost identical to the one the did in the same slot on the same stage with the same visuals two years ago' (www.gusset.co.uk). And the years before that, no doubt. I remember when they were good live.

This was my fourth Glastonbury. Not many, but the others were full of once in a lifetime seminal festival performances. This year it wasn't really about the music and that hurt, although it was still one of the best, even with the mud and the rain and my new found limp due to achilles injury.

Dave's Big Glastonbury 2004 review

Sorry about the long delay people! I've been away for a week. Got muddy, sunburnt, muddy and injured. Saw tons of music (and lots of random stuff). Very little in the way of drum and bass this year (boohoo). Here's my Glastonbury review, in the style of Santa's Christmas list:
Camping - nice

Toilets - nice

(hehe, we had the best crew camping ever)

Sun - nice

Mud - naughty

Circus fields - nice and random

Babyhead - nice

Kasabian ('oasis and kraftwerk' said the review - they weren't wrong) - naughty

Spree (drum and bass) - nice

Jim White - nice (but only coz he was so average)

Death b4 Dishonour (hip hop crew) - nice

Elbow - very nice

Snow Patrol - naughty

PJ Harvey - nice

Tindersticks - nice (but we had to go work halfway through)

Lost Prophets - naughty

Ben Harper - NICE!!!

The Egg - naughty (how are the mighty fallen)

Jane Taylor - nice

Tinariwen - nice! (backstage view too)

James Brown - very nice

Suzanne Vega - nice

Bill Bailey - very nice indeed (played on our stage - nearly didn't coz of the rain

40 ft praying mantis - nice (and French)

Naked dancing girls - nice

15 yr old jazz sax genius in the Banyan tree tent - nice (but naughty coz he couldn't sing)

Random electro band in some place - nice

Bunch of hippies jamming on didgeridoos and drums at four in the morning - nice

So there you have it, the most comprehensive Glastonbury review ever! I'll find some way of putting my pictures up on the net... And write a discourse on how Ben Harper showed everyone what a seminal festival performance really is.

Nina Nastasia at St George's, Bristol

There's a thing about Tuvans at the moment. I mean, when we discovered Yat Kha all those years ago, they were the one of the most amazing musical creations I'd ever heard. Plus, their founder with his electric guitar built Tuvan throat music into a whole different kind of music. What's this got to do with Nina Nastasia? I hear you cry. Well, I'm afraid that Nina, bless her, seems to have realised (a little too late IMHO) how cool Tuvan music is these days.

Michael Ormiston came to the Venn festival, a few months after a seminal Yat Kha gig. Yat Kha themselves appeared on Susheela Rahman's last album Love Trap. And last night, Nina Nastasia brought in a couple for the second half of her gig.

There are some lessons we learn from this. Her producers made her do it. Maybe. I'd like to give her credit, it doesn't seem that she's the kind of writer to be told what to do. It's just that some of the songs were so obviously written for the Igil and they were quite annoying, boring, even, compared to the rest of her work. However, there were other songs, where it sounded more like they had been added afterwards, and those ones were really good. So my conclusion, is that while the fashion is dictating how much Tuvan music we get given these days, we can't write for it, because it is inherent in all music.

If you don't know her, Nina is a very strange mixture of sometimes simple, nursery-rhyme like melodies and jarring clashes between the viola's harmonics, an accordion and her voice. I couldn't help drawing comparisons between her acoustic sound and Kristin Hersh's... Kristin is a lot more crazy though, which is why she's the best... Other times, she sings like Jewel without the silly affected voice.

No bass player. Once I'd got over that, a lot of the songs were very compelling still, just couldn't shake the feeling that we were all being played for suckers a little bit. Yes the Tuvans are amazing. Yes their techniques are stunning, but this wasn't really up to the right standard to be able to carry it off. Just stick to what you do best Nina!

Kathryn Williams at The Fleece, Bristol

Well the internet is so wonderful and efficient these days, you can't look up last night's gig (well now it was Monday 19th's gig) to find out the name of the support band! A brief search for 'Kathryn Williams support band' found the culprits: Clayhill. I suppose I should have known I was in for a night of unabashed whimsy, given the nature of Kathryn's (you don't mind if I call her Kathryn do you? Thanks) own work. But it was an unnatural venue for it. A mesmerised (stunned, lethargic, bored?) audience, sat and stood in (I thought / hoped) shocked silence while Clayhill played their songs and laughed nervously at the band's bad jokes. Having said that, the audience was enthusiastic in its applause, so maybe they did actually like it. You can download music from their evil popup web site and make up your own minds.

Beware of Grasscutter, a song the bass player introduced by saying he found a man cutting an immaculate lawn in the mountains of Peru with a pair of scissors. '...So being a musician', he said, 'I got out my minidisk recorder and recorded it'. Why? We hoped we were in for some experimental Sound of Scissors as drum track, but the recording never appeared. I don't know why he mentioned it. It wasn't even imitated by the guitar part. I was also wondering if perhaps the guy had stood up and said 'look, I don't mind you recording, but I could do with a hand here, my shears are broke and the mower packed in and it isn't easy cutting a lawn with scissors you know.'

...So back to the point. I didn't think much of the support band really, not my thing. Kathryn Williams on the other hand was great, her voice was lovely, her current album is an album of covers, but she also claims to have an album's worth of new material, some of which she played. As she joked about messing up at a couple of points, I made a mental note to always cock something up when performing coz it really helps your audience to warm to you! Well as long as it's nothing major anyway.

We were treated to her interpretations of songs by the BeeGees (I Started A Joke - no disco unfortunately), Velvet Underground ('so I was sitting in the café eating egg and chips and I asked Lou Reed if I could sing one of his songs and he said yes' Candy Says), Mae West (A Guy What Takes His Time) and a surprisingly good version of Pavement's Spit on a Stranger. The Mae West tune suffered a little from being clunky and as my friend put it, 'like they've learned a jazz / blues song note by note', which kind of defeats the whole object of the genre. Ivor Cutler's Beautiful Cosmos sounded like they were taking the p*ss, a bit too twee, and everyone jumped out of their skins (or was it just me?) when she blasted out the final Halleluyah's of the famous, much covered song by Leonard Cohen. The sudden loudness must have woken up the soundman who obviously had everything set up for whimsy and wasn't ready for that kind of volume! No 'All Apologies', perhaps its poor reception in album reviews has dampened her love of that particular song.

If Kathryn Williams had fallen out of love with music - her reason / excuse for doing a covers album - it certainly seemed as if she was right back in there again. It was mainly the industry she was disillusioned with I think, that's been a battle for her since the beginning. So…er 8/10 for the gig, plus an extra 2/10 for making me laugh a lot!Her (not 3vil) web site is www.kathrynwilliams.net and you can download her latest single from there for 99p (£1.50 with printable art!)

2 Gig Reviews In One

I had a weekend of going out, seeing lots of small new bands, some local, some seemingly travelling miles for no reason. At The Croft this Friday:

Grand Rose Band: They said: "Bathonians playing head swaying, REM style melodies with Led Zep/Bowie undertones. Bristol should jump up and pay attention" We only saw half of their last song so I don't know... Didn't look that great - by which I mean the music was sterile and kinda boring, not that the actual band member themselves (they were your usual greasy pub-rock-band-looking types), but you know, they were enjoying themselves, although the crowd stayed at a safe distance. (http://www.grandroseband.com)

Following them was a band from Wrexham called Cream Tangerine. They said: "Grunge giants of Wrexham who have a fine line in multi part vocals, intense choruses and unforgettable riffs. There is no way you will be able to stand still." (http://www.creamtangerine.org). We stood still. And nodded at the occasional good bits, which tended to be the beginning and the end. Oh, and the bits between the absolutely forgettable riffs and bland choruses. I could go on, but you need to make up your own mind really. They do have a good line in multi-part vocals, though I wished the second guitarist was also the main singer.

The highlight of the evening were The Playwrights. They said: "Purveyors of some of the finest avant garde, stop-start guitar rock this side of the grave, this much loved Bristol outfit come to this after a hard year of gigging nationwide. Their last gig with their current bassist, so they will want to make it an occasion to remember." No I don't know what stop-start guitar rock is, but I chatted to some one about it and he said it was the 'angular rhythms' that made it. Which means the way the play punky stuff in 9/8 time. With a cornet. And cowbell. They were just fantastic, energetic, different and interesting. (http://www.theplaywrights.co.uk)

The Mayors of A. R. C. appeared to be drunk. Which made them rubbish. I didn't find them funny, original or good in any way whatsoever. They said: "Managing to be both funked to the max and languidly lazy, the Mayors combine ska, hip hop and stoner rock, with lashings of Portuguese rap. The Orishas meets Goldie Looking Chain." And they don't even have a web site! How modern are they!

At Sausage Time at the Arc Bar last night, after we got past the first test of the Jamaican guy downstairs telling everyone the night didn't exist ('are you fick or summink?' 'why don't you fuck off') there were some really interesting examples of 'what the kids are doing'.

Well I say interesting, the music... wasn't, but it's interesting to see what people are trying to do. Tailfly - sparkling epic rock - Sparkling, because they use a little xylophone in some of their songs. Epic, because they do long, slow (fine line towards boring) tunes and Rock? I don't know where that came from, maybe because they have guitars and occasional loud bits, a la Mogwai / Godspeed etc, both of whom do it better, but they're only young, and they suffered from being crammed into a tiny space which caused lots of feedback fun for the soundman. On the other hand, their final tune was a real corker, with an excellent big keyboard bassline and fast drums... (http://www.tailfly4.com)

Panda Emulation (8 bit supernaturalists), suffered from lack of interest. Loops and beats are all well and good, but even the lo-fi (hence 8-bit) keyboards couldn't save the fact these boys were just using a couple of trackers and a desktop. I know this could open me up for criticism, especially as I'm not famed for being able to go out and play my stuff live, but I like to have more structure in my music. The problem with that, I guess is that it's trying to apply rules to what good music is again, and anyone who's heard 20th century modernism (and post-modernism) knows that when you do that, horrible things happen as a reaction! (http://www.pandaemulation.co.uk)

Idlab (evil machine sounds) got three drunk people out of the crowd to play little bird whistles, which he sampled and turned into white noise, gradually, with a lot of fucked-upness, e-bowed bass samples until he overdrove the speakers and then he stopped. Remember what I said above? Well that's what he did. But at least it was really experimental, more like a work of art than a gig! (http://www.idlab.org.uk)

Expect much more of this, as I try and work out what the hell everyone's up to in the city at the moment, and try to work out where I fit in...

Geisha at Thekla

Of course it wasn't just Geisha, but that's how I sold it to my friends: "Want to go out and listen to some dark noise metal that's mentalistic and wicked?" also playing at the Thekla (Wednesday 15th September) were Ivory Springer, The Edmund Fitzgerald and Bronnt Industries Kapital. It said doors at nine, but knowing Thekla we left late, and arrived hearing rumours (so far unconfirmed) that this was a gig the POLICE DID NOT WANT YOU TO SEE (apparently they tried to shut the place down). Anyway, on to my entirely subjective 'review':

Ivory Springer

Dammit. Arrived too late. Apparently they were very good, but I'll have to wait a bit before I get to review them.

The Edmund Fitzgerald

Just starting when we arrived, Oxford's TEF were a bit muffled, but that's what you get for sitting round the corner on a boat. Once we'd got over the first round of drinks I ventured out to see what the hell was going on with the music. Distant vocals, no bass, an insane drummer and two guitarists, all of whom seemed to be lost in their own thoughts, yet somehow managing to stay extremely tight. This was quite something. To give you some kind of idea about the scale of TEF's vision, they played 3 songs, in a 45-minute set. The songs start innocently enough, you know - strong riffs, powerful metal, we couldn't hear the words - then it all seems to go haywire. A quiet period, followed by extended bouts of syncopated power chords all executed with mathematical precision, before rocking out in a big way. I have to admit though, that by the end of the third song I did kinda wish that they didn't make it quite so extended. Like you know, that instead of going 'I like that, lets do it over and over again and build it up slowly', they just did it once and got on with the rocking. Very impressive mind.

Geisha

I really wasn't prepared for this. Well mentally I was, of course - just in the mood for some serious metal shouty madness - but I was nowhere near prepared enough for them to be THAT good. The hairy singer shouted incomprehensibly and hit his 'you thought there wasn't room for any more distortion? Well here's a little bit more!' pedals at appropriate moments while the leather trousered bass player showed TEF what a really good bass sound is (although I hear he regretted wearing trousers that tight later) and their drummer was a skilled dervish of percussion. I'm sure I could hear Zeppelin riffs in there, just with maximum added fuzz and noise. Occasional bouts of beautiful music broke the noise up perfectly and even with severe flu it really sorted out my dark mood.

Bronnt Industries Kapital

I'm not really sure how this got onto the bill, I didn't stay long enough to find out if there was any metal involved but it certainly started out as quiet, atmospheric electronic sounds with shades of Aphex Twin. Good beginning, but it was a Wednesday and I was ill.

NsN, Bury and Disinter, Manyfingers at The Cube

Before I get into this I've got a major confession to make: this was actually my first visit to The Cube! Been in Bristol six years, never been. Well those days are over now. To find out more about the Cube and why it's slightly embarrassing that I haven't been yet, visit their web site.

North Sea Navigator, along with Tim (Drummer of Angel Tech Fame) was sounding much better, much clearer than a few weeks ago where the engineer really screwed up the sound. The performance was excellent, covering up for the missing cello admirably, and we were treated to a sound that strictly shouldn't be allowed to come from two people. NSN as a 'band' has gone through many different mutations, from playing solo acoustic sets to the full line up of electric guitar, cello and harmonium / drums. Coming in late on the scene, I can't really comment on the actual progression of the music, but the current sound is confident and powerful. NSN are currently working on an album, to complement the Alibis E.P. released a couple of months ago.

Bury and Disinter are the only group I've seen for a while who appeared to be bored by their own music. I think everyone else was wondering what they were supposed to be experiencing as well. A stone's throw away from pure ambience, there were a couple of moments that made you think 'I like this bit' but generally directionless soundscapes accompanied by meaningless visuals made for a fairly dull show. The only thing that stopped me disappearing to the bar was that I was worried I'd wake up the people next to me when I climbed over them. A good example of 'they're good at what they do', but I didn't really get it, if indeed there was anything to get.

Manyfingers on the other hand, otherwise known as multi-instrumentalist Chris Cole (Crescent, Movietone, Matt Elliot) was a seriously powerful experience. Echoing the layering concepts used back in the days of post-modern 20th century art music, think Phillip Glass, Nancarrow and their ilk, the aptness of the name was immediately apparent once we realised that the set-up of cello, drum kit, keyboards, guitar, mixing desk and various interesting looking effects units were going to be played by just one person! Each tune started with a simple piano line, usually a four-bar loop, to which he added layer upon layer of melody and rhythm with impressive results. It was just fantastic waiting to see what he was going to add next, and occasionally a cornet player appeared and added a bit of extra melody on top. I did find myself wondering whether the music was written with maths or just by sound, he carefully followed a script, on which I imagined was simply written things like, 'now hit your guitar like this', followed by a little diagram only he would understand. I hope anyway! This was a really good gig.

Team Brick Album Launch, 18th Sept

Team Brick (and friends), Headfall and Freeze Puppy, Saturday 18th September at the Cube Microplex, Bristol

Freeze Puppy seems to have his whole performance all wrapped up. Entering in contemplative mode, he ceremoniously circles his guitar, before picking it up and slowly putting it on... Armed with a toy saxophone, he stalks the microphone centre stage. The atmospherics in the background quieten, and the madness begins. I don't think there is anything quite like Freeze Puppy. He is at once hilarious, insane, musical, atonal and thought-provoking. OK, mainly thoughts like, what the hell is going on inside this man's head?, but with lyrics like I've got a frog in my throat and it's hungry, you have to wonder. He stares wildy about himself and gesticulates to rhythms that seem hidden in the music, pausing only to fix the sampler that seemed to get stuck in a loop which we hadn't realised wasn't part of the performance. His melodies are as random as his lyrics, but have a real comedic charm about them. This was a very special performance, which left me with a feeling that all was right with the world, if a bit off kilter.

Throughout Headfall's set I wished a few things. Firstly, that Freeze Puppy had just played for another hour. Other dreams included bands being able to tune guitars, being able to sing, originality... I liked the lyrics though. What we heard of them. Musically, echoes of Godspeed You Black Emperor and Meanwhile Back In Communist Russia - but out of tune, directionless and frustrating. They've been playing together for a long time - since 1997 - and I really don't understand why bands think it's cool, clever or musical to sound so bad. Personally I hate the White Stripes for the same reason. And I mean hate. There is potential for powerful emotions in there, some beautiful moments, but they were just moments which soon disappeared when the clumsiness returned. I don't want to rant too much. Critics seem to love this kind of music, they use words like 'raw' and 'honest' and 'increasing tonal awareness'. But I really think after 7 years of playing together people would work out that music is a bit more than playing out of tune and shouting.

*Breathes Heavily*

On to the main show. Team Brick + friends. Or 'fun with delays'. It seemed that the Cube was packed with friends of TB, the atmosphere was good, the band self-conscious, and the music - well - eclectic, drone-noise, was enlightening, soothing, frightening and indetermined. Every member, save perhaps the guy who stood in the back left corner behind a box of wires had some kind of strange delay effect to play through. In some tunes this worked to great effect and in others it was a little bit annoying. The drums sounded terrible, flat, cheap. I don't think this was intentional, and our man certainly bashed them as best he could in one of the louder numbers. For the finale a ramshackle choir sang a short round about fish or something - I'm not really sure where this fitted into the grand vision of things but while at the time I thought it was awful, in hindsight I can't imagine the evening ending any other way.

I have a few gripes, mainly about indeterminism and how I never liked it the first time round. Well when I was learning about it - obviously I wasn't born when Cage and their ilk were deliberately breaking the rules of all that's good and beautiful about music. When I studied modernism and postmodernism all I could think about was that this sort of 'music' should be left to the scientists and mathematicians - read about but never listened to - because they are merely reactions to aestheticians' attempts to quantify why music is such a powerful art. As soon as someone writes down music is beautiful / sublime because... there is always someone to react and write something that contradicts it, calling it music without realising that the result proves exactly why the first statement is closer to the truth. Think Stockhausen's Gruppen for three Orchestras. You either need a surround sound system or to experience it live to hear the true effect. Why can't you have three orchestras playing 3 different modern mathematical musical pieces in different time signatures and keys at the same time? Oh THAT's why.

So some parts of Team Brick's set - ones where real composition was involved, or seemed to be involved (I'm sure there are those who would disagree) - were absolutely amazing, the instruments weaving around each other, gorgeous chords and delay (of course). Others, well there was an element of improvisation around an idea just play this til I tell you to stop, which didn't really seem to mean anything. The highlight was the bass player asking if there was a sound engineer in the house because he couldn't hear himself, followed by a rant at how he'd been to two rehearsals while another member of the band had been more interested in playing Morrowind than practising.

At times it was fantastic at others shambolic, but I think this is what most people expect from such a dynamic and random performer. Most of the charm is that he saunters over to things and music just happens... It doesn't matter what. It was pretty much the direct opposite of Freeze Puppy's set, where he obviously had everything worked out to it's finest detail, random as it may sound, TB just went with what people felt like at the time. I'll definitely be going again, although I'm not sure why...

Circle, 8th Oct

Friday 8th October 2004, and after a brief sojourn at the 3vil Tragic Box up the road where I was rudely acosted by a local nutter before sharing a drink with my work colleagues, I ran into the relative safety of the Croft to enjoy some more mind-bending tunes...

Droids Chorus

I missed most of this (great reviewer, huh?) but what I saw - Kaos pad... guitar... bass... quirky songs, was okay. I'm sure I heard him singing 'horsey horsey horse' at one point. What we have here is music on the stranger side of sanity, self consciously simple almost nursery rhyme melodies that betray a great melancholy. Maybe that was just my melancholy at the fact I was watching an under-rehearsed band who looked like they couldn't play, again. Then they played their last song, which was stunning. I think once the repertoire has increased, perhaps they will be able to focus on their strong points and produce some really powerful music. Droids Chorus Web Site

Fuzz Against Junk

I'm sure most people have heard of this band by now, improvisational jazz - rock pieces, harking back to what I imagine most people were doing in the seventies. For hours. On Drugs. Echoes of Ozric Tentacles and Gong and a really tight band made for a good gig. Can't find a web site though...

Circle

It starts with a single note, a tap on the cymbals, the keyboard player caressing the keys, building slowly in intensity and hypnotising the audience into a blissful trance. I really mean everybody. It was one of those gigs where you look around and everybody is grinning and swaying slightly. By the end of the evening, I don't think there was a head that wasn't nodding, and as Finnish 'drone rockers' Circle took us through epic soundscapes ranging from Plant / Gillan screaming over pure rock to hymnal incantations and the most delicate melodies. Although I haven't yet heard the CD that I bullied my friend into buying, there are a lot to collect, but unfortunately it doesn't look like much of their back catalogue is still in production. Anyone who gets the chance should go and experience this band in the flesh. Seeing Circle will probably turn out to be the highlight of my year. circlefinland.com

Decode's 23rd Birthday Party, 11th Oct

It was a bit strange of me, having never met the guy, but having talked to him on the internet to arrive at his birthday party as if I were a friend. However, this is no normal community. About three months ago I discovered and joined a forum on which local Bristolian musicians, promoters, engineers and other like-minded individuals gather to arrange meetings, gigs, discuss music and other random things in an uncensored, free-thinking, open kind of a way. The Choke Forum can be found at http://ttyc.co.uk and it seems to be demonstrating a powerful way for all these various groups in the industry to get together, advertise and find out what is going on. It isn't the only forum like this, there are others, but I already knew some of the people here. Anyway, I digress. I will write more about this phenomenon later.

It is however, the reason that I felt comfortable coming to someone's birthday bash, because really, it was just a free gig. At the Croft again, on the 11th October... on to the music, with apologies to Cajita who I missed...

Rose Kemp

Now I always thought the thing about singer songwriters is that you can hear the words, because their songs aren't about getting up and dancing, or being amazed at the incredible new sounds they are making, but about the purity of harmony, melody and the stories they tell. The emotions they make you feel. You know, people are supposed to sit down and be quiet, furrow their brows and contemplate the wondrousness of the human voice and the futility of existence without song. Or something. So having got over the embarrassment of everyone watching me enter the bar as Ms Kemp was performing right beside the door and armed with a drink I sat down to have my musical taste buds stimulated. Unfortunately, while still audible over the chatter of a busy bar, I couldn't make out a single word. The use of electric guitar rather than acoustic (although played as if 'twere an acoustic) was a good change, since it facilitated slightly distorted loudness, but something about the set up really muffled her voice. As such, I couldn't really form a decision on the music, while pleasing, it did still sound just like a girl playing guitar and singing like a million others. If I had been able to concentrate more, maybe in a different venue - but don't let me put you off, I just think the atmosphere was wrong, the songs were really good.

SJ Esau

A single deck for scratching, the usual array of boxes and instruments made for another interesting gig from the organic ever-changing SJ Esau. Here we have more layered samples of live instruments, distorted singing interspersed with violin, clarinet, melodica. I should be bored of these songs by now, I've heard them enough times, but the thing about the genius of Sam and his many, many guises is he always seems to be able to bring something fresh to the music. As I eagerly anticipated my favourite track (following the amazing solo performance at Brick's birthday bash) epiphany coming through my head, I had to be disappointed that they chose to do a stadium rock version - as stadium rock as it is possible to get with this kind of lo-fi sound - complete with chanted chorus towards the end and the feeling that we should all be swaying with lighters in the air. But what band doesn't want that?

Bucky

I'd heard good things about Bucky, but no-one told me exactly what to expect, so I'm not going to give away any secrets. Suffice to say, this was the most entertaining gig I've been to for a long time, a fast, furious punk duo whose inter-song banter is longer than the songs themselves. Songs about Bruce Springsteen and the American flag, a happy birthday Theo moment and a lot of jokes made for some very happy faces in the audience. And if you think being a drummer with only one hand is a handicap, then you really need to see this band because he plays like no other drummer I've seen! Bucky are excellent...

New Grand Smoking Palace

At first I thought NGSP were alright, tight band, catchy tunes but then it slowly dawned on me: The gurning, the poses, the foot-stamping... it's the Strokes/Jets/Hives/Ferdinand*/all that goddamn nu-punk nonsense all over again. (Correction from my friend Adz: "Franz Ferdinand aren't punk, they're new wave. Actually, they're pretty much definitively new wave, in that they listened to punky people whilst at art school and then tried to make a band that captured the energy whilst being middle-class, nicely dressed and nice enough to take home to meet your mum.")However different they are trying to be, my friend insists that it is the singer who ruins it, personally I think she saves the music from having to put up with a bloke with a silly voice (see all the above). Their sound is accomplished, raw, some decent hooks in there, but the whole ethos of this kind of music makes me furious. Like UK Garage. Sorry guys.

Blackbud

Unfortunately, being a school night, I had to go home so I couldn't form an opinion of the increasingly contentious Blackbud. The funny thing is that a lot of people's problem with them is that they're NOT contentious at all and that's where all the arguments start. So I'll link you to some varied responses to the gig instead: The Choke 'Discussion' and Blackbud's Forum.

Noisefest at SK8 and Ride, 15-16th Oct

A festival of Noise. And they weren't wrong either. The full listing comprised of Friday 15: Cephalic Inscription, A Lion, Big Joan, Tractor, Iron Hearse, Walrus and Saturday 16: Fruit of the Doom, Hunting Lodge, Lead to Wine, Mea Culpa, Thread, Geisha... The venue couldn't have been more appropriate, even though we approached in a spiral pattern having read some erroneous directions on the internet, Sk8 and Ride with it's corridors and small rooms (and obviously a big hall full of ramps and half pipes), provided a good little back room for encouraging deafness and tinnitus. As such, some of the more 'noisy' bands suffered greatly from sounding terrible. Or maybe they really were.

I had a brief discussion on the definition of noise with Geisha front man Tone, mainly because they are often described as such, in fact they insist that they are and laugh when I call them metal. So I asserted that I wouldn't call them a noise band because they have tunes, and music. When I think of 'noise' I think of indefinable sounds, sounds that cannot be given names like 'chord', 'note', 'harmony', 'melody'. When faced with sounds this heavy, the last two do seem a little out of place, but I hold that they are there, if you listen. So anyway, Tone says that it is more about the attitude of the band than the music. 'Most metal bands connect with the audience because they sing about things the audience hates so they have a camaraderie there', he said, 'Geisha don't do that we hate the audience as well, that's what being a noise band means to me'. I just think they're using the words wrong, but I told him he had to prove it to me when they play on Saturday. 'You love the audience', I said, 'No! we hate you all!' he insisted.

So anyway, on both nights we missed the first two bands… curse our casual lateness! This meant I missed Thread, Lead to Wine, Cephalic Inscription, A Lion and Walrus, some of whom I had wanted to see, others I have no regret about missing, since I had heard nothing about them anyway - sorry guys! Still there'll be other nights. Of the bands I actually saw, obviously some pleased me and some... well... didn't. It has taken me too long to actually go and see Big Joan, but fortunately they didn't disappoint me. The music is almost dance-like (that's 'dance' as a beats and breaks genre) but punk… like. The rest of Friday's bands were largely lost due to absinthe and being outside, but I caught the tail end of Iron Hearse, bluesy metal, as I recall, I also recall thinking they were really good. Sean, the drummer from Tractor told me I wouldn't like Tractor and he was right. Laboured, slow loud noise, probably everything the weekend was supposed to mean, I imagine, but not for me. Or anyone really.

I've wanted to see Mea Culpa for a while now, having heard the muffled shouting noise on their web site, and they were much much more accomplished than I had expected. Most metal bands have one person shouting, they have two. And a member who crouches behind a small keyboard with an ebow. Moments of staggering beauty break up the wall of noise, as the audience undulated to accommodate the hyperactive front men. The moshing was bound to happen, and when it did no-one seemed to be surprised, but I was too wrapped up in the music to mind so much.

Geisha followed, the moment I had been waiting for - Tone glowered at the microphone, I waited for the bile and hatred he had promised me. 'Alright,' he said, 'how you doing?' Not quite the torrent of abuse he had been waiting for. 'He loves us really' I thought, as I settled down to enjoy another storming Geisha set. They were followed by Hunting Lodge, whom I am assured sound a lot better on CD, but who have also been lauded by a lot of the people who attended (bands, anyway) to be the highlight of the weekend. I really don't understand the enthusiasm for a band that can ruin some apparently good songs with some terrible guitar sounds. The bass had no bass! Yes, mock my traditionalism if you want, you crazy experimentalists, but when I am assaulted by a wall of treble in a tinny room I get a bit cross that the bassist thinks it's 'groundbreaking' to play through a Big Muff PI with the bass turned down while the guitarists are playing at the top of the fretboard... I didn't stay very long. Long enough to get a headache, but like I said, the songs might have been a lot better if there had been a greater range of frequencies.

Fruit of the Doom - Like noisy Nu-Metal with rapping. Sounds like some other similar bands - I don't want to insult them further by making comparisons. Well practised, but annoying I'm afraid! So having drunk all the absinthe and watched the ups and downs - on Saturday there were people injecting in the toilets - mm nice! But overall the Sk8 and Ride was actually a pretty cool venue for this kind of thing. It probably won't be open for longer than a year so we'll have to make sure it gets used as much as possible before then...

Decode Unplugged, 23rd Oct

A midweek evening of quietude and eclecticism, in which I managed to escape from the current trend of Real Life (if I was into bio-rhythms mine would be in a VERY deep slump at the moment). One of the things I was looking forward to with this gig was that it included some performers I have seen who rely heavily on electronic boxes for their sound. Are they actually any good? I was asking myself. At last I will find out once and for all whether the distortion of their music by digital means belies a great lack of talent.

'Real' musicians have been heard to complain about how computers help people who lack the skills / flair / deep seated 'raw talent that you can't buy in shops' to make acceptable music. Programs like Rebirth, Reason, Orion, Fruity Loops etcetera already come with acid housey trancey techno bollocks inbuilt. You can instantly create dance music without really trying. This isn't original, it's taking what other people have already done and put it through an LFO. I always used to take great pleasure in taking the Acid House sounds of Rebirth and turning it into rough Drum and Bass, or at least trying to. It is at once obvious to any discerning listener whether any real composition and creative thought has gone into any piece of music, although with a noise that you don't quite understand it is sometimes difficult. Personally, I have a problem with music that requires training before you can appreciate it.

Not to say that's what we are experiencing here, although sometimes I wonder, as the words 'challenging' and 'unusual' are thrown about. If you don't understand the concept of the art, how can you purport to understand the music, let alone appreciate it on its own merits.

So with the opportunity of seeing SJ Esau, Team Brick and Max Milton all exposed without their boxes (I was most suspicious about the last two as Sam manages to sing some actual songs rather than 'works' in his performances), I headed off to Bar Unlimited with an open eager mind. SJ Esau was excellent. Self conscious in parts, with just an acoustic guitar for accompaniment, and a couple of songs that I recognised from other, more 'plugged' gigs. Bizarre lyrics and light-hearted subjects made SJ Esau's set a pleasure to hear.

Mario Vendredi is something else entirely. I admit some scepticism during his first couple of songs, the man strains his voice to the point of breaking, jumping between bass, tenor and falsetto in tearful ballads about love, loss, and dog heaven. However, he really comes into his own when he puts down the guitar for a rendition of 'John the Revelator' accompanied by foot stamping and hand claps, the song sang as you imagined it would have been sung by negro slaves on the railroads. Well okay, they would have been beaten for stopping and clapping, but you know what I mean. Powerful stuff. Also tribal drum hitting with incoherent but strangely musical shouting in various voices make Mario a very entertaining performer.

A lot of these gigs always challenge me in a muso kind of way, because the music is often 'unexpected' leftfield, of undefineable genre. Following this pattern the quirky styles become the norm and the next act blew it all out of the water. Old American Country Folk tunes, very mellow, beautiful and looking around the room, I noticed that everyone was completely wrapt by it. 'So there IS a place for 'real' 'conventional' music still', I thought, and coming from a background of English Folk amongst other things, I have a lot of time for this. Helen Solomons and Andrew Short were excellent.

Team Brick's set was brief, he's been working on ostinato lately, the piece he and his gang played I have heard before, but then there was noise, and effects and delay. Lots of delay. Without all that, there is still a delicacy to the music and I must admit that I preferred it like this. Plus the drums sounded amazing. That's what you get when everyone plays without being miked up.

Max Milton didn't strike any chords with me at all. In fact I was so put off I was forced to go outside and buy some dinner and hang around until he'd finished. The stuff I wrote at University was crap. Student compositions, ripping off Nyman etc, but this sort of this should remain firmly in the classroom. I appreciate the effort to write art music, and the attempt to bring it to a popular forum in this way, I mean that's what chamber music used to be all about but I'm not sure about this at all. Maybe clever effects would work better... or just continuing to collaborate with others as he isn't lacking in talent.

Whale Bone Polly are a trio who sing English folky-type music, stunning songs and three-part harmonies rounded off a very good evening. Had I the money, I would have been buying CDs, them and the country folk get my vote for the best performers of the night (with Mario very close behind).

October Revolution, 30th Oct

Apparently this gig, which showcased 12 Bristol bands at the Student Union, was going to teach the new students the great diversity and talent in the City at the moment, ostensibly to say that we aren't about Massive Attack and Portishead and Kosheen (spit) anymore. I pity those who had to make the choice of who to invite to play, but the music on show was certainly diverse. As usual I missed the first half, due to an attack of GTA San Andreas in the afternoon, so apologies to: The Mighty Stars, Valley Forge, Sammo Hung, SJ Esau and Male.

I arrived just after War Against Sleep had started, they do relaxed, rolling, Ben Folds Five (I'm probably just making this comparison because they have a piano frontman) / Divine Comedy style 'proper' songs, but with that thing of building up the noise and intensity towards the end. I did like it, but I don't think I'd listen to it, if you get my meaning, more inoffensive than inspiring.

Because of WAS's mellow sound, I did wonder what was going to happen to the audience when Geisha took to the stage. As usual they put a huge smile on my face, and more pleasingly, the audience didn't thin out as much as I had expected. Bass player Steve was fantastically angry, and the set concluded with singer Tone running through the audience screaming. Great stuff.

Ivory Springer have a problem. Or I have a problem with them. I'm not sure what this problem is, and am willing to re-visit this band to try and work it out. At the risk of sounding too subjective, Termites or 'the' Termites are derivative, pretentious boring pop-punk of the most commercial kind. Melodies reminiscient of a little band from 1965 called 'the pink floyd' and gong as if it's new music. It isn't.

Big Joan played a storming set until the bass player's amp blew up.

Ever since being at University around them, I have had this thing for hating Chikinki. They have been through various guises in the years since then, I first encountered them being a student funk band - a fairly good one - and was always sceptical of their move into more progressive rock/dance music. I last saw them at the Ashton Court festival that happened in Hengrove Park, which was about three years ago. I was bitter about the adulation and the breaks they had, probably through hard bloody work, but I never thought their music really deserved it. So I thought it was about time I gave them another chance. By the time they played I was pretty drunk, so forming coherent opinions was difficult, but I was left with the impression that they were too damn fashionable. Following the same new wave trend that everyone else (Termites) seems to be following. I'm going to have to stay away. Other people like them so that I don't have to.

Needledrop, The Croft, 8th Nov

Mixed emotions about this one really, I was interested in seeing what the guitarist from the Fun Loving Criminals would do, but wasn't quite prepared for it to be as dodgy as it actually was! The crying shame of the whole night was that when Needledrop (www.needledropnyc.com) actually played, the audience was almost entirely made up of members of the other bands.

Irish singer-songwriter Mark Greville opened proceedings, the man has a fantastic voice and a couple of really good songs, but slipped all to often into melodies and chord sequences that Radiohead amongst others would dearly like to have words about I'm sure. The Fluids (www.thefluids.com) were bad. Apart from being a rock band that doesn't rock in a basic kind of way their singer 'sings' in an entirely different key to the rest of the band. This is not cool. With trepidation we returned to the room having ran away from The Fluids to see The Bears blowing the doors off the previous two acts. Light-hearted semi-hiphop and singsong tunes about 'real life' issues like working in an office, it's not often you hear lyrics about fat health & safety representatives to a funk-hop backing. Funny and very enjoyable. Needledrop were good, but missing half a band. The singer is very pretty, but coy and motionless. She really needs to get more into the songs, and overcome the shyness. They played along to a backing track of drums, bass and keyboards - it worked very well but really, how hard is it to find these instrumentalists for a good band? The music is chilled out trip-hop, similar in tone to later FLC albums. Not the best gig ever, but worth it just to find out about The Bears!

Cajita, Rose Kemp, Geisha, 17th Nov

Wednesday 17th November, the Louisiana, Bristol

Cajita are a strange collective, quiet, melodic and with some atmospheric quality that I'm finding really hard to define. With a backing of samples for the rhythm section, electronica noises and chilled guitars, the music is both melancholic and uplifting. When they were playing, they created an almost perfect world of sound which was marred only by the drowning out of the drum samples in the loud bits. Even more frustrating was the fact that there was a drumkit right behind the laptop, looking lonely, unwanted and desperately needed. In the room upstairs at the Louisiana, this was an intimate relaxing gig, no wonder everyone sat on the floor, entranced by the music.

Rose Kemp made us all stand up. When I saw her at a birthday party at the Croft a few weeks ago, I hadn't been able to fully enjoy the songs, due to being unable to hear a damn word she said. Tonight she is accompanied by a band and sounding totally different. In Violence she glides easily between folky, breathy singing to heavy distorted breaks, and I realised that there can be no comparisons to her heritage here, except that Ms Kemp has inherited her mother's amazing voice and tremendous talent. I still hold that some of the songs really don't need a band. I know she is trying to escape the label pinned on her in early recordings, but sometimes you just need to let your voice shine and adding the band around it just cheapens the sound when they don't really have anything interesting to play. On the whole however, this was a stunning performance.

Geisha's new web site, clearly reflects the band's darkness. I am eagerly awaiting my very own copy of their EP Hymns for the Living Dead, which should tide me over until the album comes next year. This performance was however fraught with problems, mainly because of the band's loudness in such a tiny space. Basically, when you hear Geisha's sound being described as 'frightening', you don't know the meaning of the word until you see the band really possessed by blind rage. So a non-gig really, but a spectacle nonetheless. For more details, see this thread on the Choke forum: today's question is...

New Rhodes, Get-outs, Dirty Whites, 19th Nov

When we arrived at The Cube on Friday night, the queue outside filled us with a sense of resignation. Even if they had tickets on the door, we wouldn't be able to get in anyway. Despite being old that they'd tell us when they ran out, and that there were a few tickets left, it wasn't until we got within earshot of the desk (actually inside the building) that we heard that there had never been any and they were just letting people in to drink. Not letting this deter us from seeing some form of live music that night, we went down to The Croft to see what was on. If anything I might find a band that I liked...

The Dirty Whites are a skinhead shouty punk band. While slightly entertaining and well-rehearsed, every time they started a song, we thought it was a cover of some old Clash tune or something. Not good. After a few songs the everyone shouting together got annoying, my eyes glazed over and I kept telling myself it would be alright, they're playing guitar solos at least. If you want to hear what punk sounded like when it was raw and slightly dangerous, they're worth it, but these days it all seems a bit tired. It just isn't enough to regurgitate this stuff anymore.

Now heading for something different, The Get Outs play better, more original sounding melodic punk rock, their singer has an almost Tim-from-the-Cardiacs singing style, and his eyebrows are a band member in their own right. Very good stuff, I thought. The Get Outs really showed the other two bands what originality and good songwriting is all about, three songs by The New Rhodes were enough to prove to me that I wouldn't be going near them again. Uninspired commercial sing-song sanitised punk. But that's just one muso's opinion. You are of course welcome to find out for yourself, if you insist! One for the kids I think.

Sausage Time XII The First Birthday, 21 Nov

The Arc Bar, Bristol

12 months ago, Sausage Time was born. To quote from the home page, "sausage time is a monthly event at which artists from bristol and beyond are invited to perform experimental and creative music, film, poetry, and live art and other entertainment strategies." I've only made it to a few, having only been introduced to this scene recently, but it never fails to amaze / horrify / amuse me, while also allowing me to comtemplate what the hell the 'true' meaning of music actually is. As Aaron Copland says on the front page of this site, I have no idea how to quantify it. but dammit, I'm gonna try.

As usual, I missed the first act, De:Vil, who seemed to provide a fair proportion of the audience. The following act Jar plays the piano and sings, but it really does seem as though she is stretching herself beyond her ability at the moment. This is always a good thing for musicians to do, I guess. Although some of the over-complicated music did seem under-rehearsed, Jar has a very good singing voice and I'm sure there will be more to follow. She had a very encouraging reception from a section of the audience.

Robh Hokum, a quiet man-with-guitar (although he does know the 'art' of crescendo) was largely ignored, possibly because of the extremely quiet singing - maybe the atmosphere was too noisy for what he was trying to achieve.

Jeremy Smokingjacket, a collaboration of SJ Esau and Rose Kemp picked things up a bit, with more fantastic singing over Mr Esau's usual loops and strange noises. The highlight had to be a song where Rose Kemp sang over a loop of her own coughing - strange I know but it worked and inspired some more loud coughing from the more inebriated watchers at the back of the room.

Silev is an incarnation of Sausage Time creator and promoter Hugh IdLab. Fedback electronic noises of quietude and directionless ambience, to be honest, I was too busy buying Rose Kemp's CD to pay any real attention. The CD IS excellent though.

Plantlife, 24th Nov

There was this great band called the Breakestra, once. They used to play the breaks and often the full originals of funk and soul songs which became famous through their use as the basis for many early hip hop tunes. As a live band, the Breakestra would mix the songs and breaks together - I suppose as a live band the word 'segue' would be more appropriate. It was a fast and furious funk experience that I first saw at Fiddlers, coincidentally, but one I will remember for a long time both for the two hours of non-stop playing and the energy the huge band brought to the stage. As is often the way with bands whose music and raison d'etre is based on a simple idea, a gimmick, they only lasted a few years and the second time I saw them (at Fiddlers again) I had persuaded a lot of my friends to go because of the joy of the first time, they played four songs, two hours late, one of which was reprised for the encore. Good job I already had the CD's of them being good, I thought.

As I watched Plantlife, kicking off into a familiar set of tight funk and glorious soul, I was reminded of all this and wondered if this band would share the same fate. I heard a rumour that some of the bands members are linked but haven't been able to corroborate this (Google fails for once!). In their favour they have some incredible singers, a few good songs, but all original. In the tradition of James Brown, p-funk and many other masters of the genre this band are slamming down the funk, managing to keep fresh a sound that is decades old. Heavily scripted banter linked the songs together, which left some moments feeling a bit false but the frontman Mr Splash's boundless energy made up for it.

People are quick to assume that funk is dead, that the modern breaks and beats when they are funky, is what we have to have now. You know, the tireless journey to produce something new and original against an almost infinite backdrop of dull middle of the road muzak. Sometimes this throws up some gems, but all too often I feel that they're holding back for fear of being too similar to something else. Plantlife know all the rules and they play them well and while the sound itself isn't original, it's nice to know that someone understands, and is continuing the spirit of the music which I love. Yes I know I am also quick to criticize bands for following trends and being unoriginal, but no-one's really 'updated' funk music quite so successfully as Plantlife.

The new album, 'The Return of Jack Splash', is out now, the web site for their label is www.counterflowrecordings.com.

Geisha // Moss // Sunn(o))), 8th Dec

Wednesday 8th December, The Croft

Yes, I admit it. I went to this gig because of the hype. In a way, I should have been warned by the description:

"The SUNN(0))) mission is to create trance like soundscapes with the ultimate low end/bottom frequencies intended to massage the listeners intenstines into a act of defecation. SUNN(0))) have gathered 2x for live performances, at which they have succesfully made audience members instantly nauseous, or better yet run for the toilet in terror."

I guess, even if I had listened to their music first I would still have gone, just to see if they could make ME run to the toilet in terror. So why did I go? To see if there was anything worth listening to in this 'drone' rock music. I am somewhat humbled by the fact that this was one of the dullest gigs I've ever been to, and there was probably some element of wanting to appear that it understand it too.

Geisha, with their usual wall of furious noise, fast metal, were plagued by sound problems, but they were their usual energetic selves and put me in a fine mood for music. I'm not sure what the laptop actually did, we couldn't tell over the noise...

Moss could easily be just one person, if you closed your eyes. Perhaps a child who can't decide whether they want to be a guitarist, drummer or singer - 'now I play a power chord and let it ring, now I hit a drum or a cymbal (see how daring?); now I scream; now a slightly different power chord; now the snare…' I think I understand what they're trying to do. Actually sod it, no I don't. The fact that they've divided the work between three extremely bored looking people made it even more dull. I couldn't pass comment on whether any of them are actually talented musicians or not, because they didn't really play anything of value. I'm informed that within their genre they are actually one of the good ones, but I'm not going to pretend it's worth the effort of understanding.

The main band, much-hyped famed for their volume, vibrations and ceremony, didn't disappoint. For about the first twenty minutes anyway, which was halfway through their first song! Let me try to explain what we saw. Moog and Mini-Moog keyboards. Two guitars. All played through enormous amplifiers, like Marshall JCM 800's. The start was promising, disparate slow guitar melodies intertwining, building up tension as the band enter (slowly) in druidic cowls. As the first loud chord hit us, this is really where the interest ends. For a while it held my attention, as the actual sounds are amazing, hearing a pure sustained power chord at that kind of volume is every guitarists dream. In fact, I think we all do it secretly at home anyway.

Sunn(o)))'s music is created through the resonances and harmonics formed by the two guitarists playing power chords (with Great Slowness and Ceremony) in unison, which becomes offset as one player changes his chord slightly and the resulting resonances from this soundclash hit you. This builds tension, which is then released as they come back together again. The Keyboards provide impossible bass, which is supposed to be the defecation bit I guess.

Like I said, this was interesting for about 20 minutes. After that, when the wonder was over I started itching for Something To Happen. I will not be going to see any more bands whose main promise is that they are boring! I'm not into 2-minute songs, but this is a bit much. Lesson learned.

Angel Tech, Jon Gomm, Doubtful Guest, 11th Dec

11th December - Decode Unplugged - The Folk House

Doubtful Guest began by apologising that they were playing a 'plugged' set, at an unplugged gig, but then proceeded to put great big smiles on everybody's faces with their uptempo skiffle / Americana / country type music. It is a genre I guess, so while I didn't really get on with their ballad (on the whole, I don't really like Country), it is a style of music that this band do very well. Real toe-tapping stuff�

Jon Gomm is out there on his own as a guitarist. He utilises every aspect of the instrument, using the body to make various drum sounds, hands flying all over the fingerboard playing harmonics and melodies and rhythm all at the same time. When he does stop to just strum conventionally, usually in the choruses, I did find myself thinking how plain it sounded. The technique works better in some numbers, 'Stupid Blues' - an instrumental - is a good example, but in others it can be a bit annoying. Once you get past the cleverness of the playing however, the songs still need to be able to stand up on their own. His cover of Radiohead's 'High and Dry' leaves a lot to be desired as the emotional impact of the song has been sacrificed in favour of technique. The chorus is left quite literally high and dry. Overall the set was good though.

Sofia Gradin, also our compere for the evening, a 6ft-something Swedish Poet tells quirky stories of misfits and a world of moral pop stars. While her poetry is poignant and funny, her singing is neither and should probably be left at home.

When Angel Tech used to play in Bristol back in 1998 - 2000 (my student days) I tried to make it to every gig they did. I would evangelise to my friends, often failing miserably to satisfactorily explain why this would probably be the best gig they would attend as students.

The music still defies explanation. They really are a 'oh just listen to it', kind of band. It is imbued with a passion that hasn't really come across on any of their recordings. 'well there's this drummer, see, and he sings and plays the keyboards, and there's these other two who play bass guitar, keyboards, violin and they sing too, but their songs aren't really like songs as we know it� it starts quiet and gets intense and loud�' you can see why I had problems. Well you would if you went to see them. There is no-one to compare this band to.

So I was fairly excited, to say the least, that after a few years' sabbatical, the trio are back, this time doing an acoustic set. The music - gentle, passionate, intense, theatrical, frightening, beautiful - I think it is testament enough that after the first couple of songs, the audience chatter had all but disappeared as everyone strained to catch every word, every note. Angel Tech are finally back, let's hope that this time they get the break they truly deserve (an interview about 'what happened' can be found at Choke).

Team Brick and Friends

Team Brick, Desdemona, When they know you they will run

It seems obvious to me now, the place I mean. As I cycled up and down the long road as directed by the reliably unreliable Team Brick I very nearly gave up and went home. 'Past the Louie, up the longroad it's on the right somewhere by the marina', he'd told me. Several dark and foreboding industrial estates later I found someone looking as lost as I was. 'Hello, you look as lost as I am', he said. Amazingly, we had encountered each other right outside the very place we were looking for! Why they don't put signs up outside the building I don't know.

The mission I'd chosen to accept was to take as many drums and percussive things as I could carry to be part of an improv / percussion / choir under the 'guidance' of Team Brick. Of course you can't have expectations for this sort of thing, so when I encountered toy drum kits, pots & pans, glasses, a traffic cone with Perspex strapped to the bottom… I knew it was going to be interesting. 'Right I'll start, we all sing and everyone can join in playing - let's see what happens.' A bit later: 'Right. When it all gets quiet and I'm sawing my cymbal like this (saws cymbal) I want all the big drums to play really loud… and then out of time...'

So on the night, as all the other bands and their mates watched we hit stuff, chanted, got loud - quiet - loud, screamed for a bit and then lay dead for an age.As we lay there and the confused clapping died out, the silence became filled with nervous whispers and giggling. At one point someone walked into the room, some people standing at the back and some lying in a circle, and asked what was going on. 'There's some people lying on the floor', 'I think it's art', followed by a mobile phone going of which cracked everyone up.We had fun playing some good rhythms, it certainly felt intense from where I was sitting, we definitely made a terrible noise and all those watched claimed they had enjoyed it... Photos courtesy of Dec (Clicky)

On Choke, someone said: "The first wave of the English resistance to the new weird America movement in full force this evening, never entirely sure whether they want to be NNCK, the master musicians of Joujouka or a bunch of pseudo-art students playing improv. The closing scene of a load of (not-dead-looking) dead people in silence meets with awkward laughs and coughs, either a Cage-ian tribute or an art-school gag gone right."

Brick replied: "art, schmart, i just wanted to make some more fun music, originally we were going to run out of the place, but it woulda been slow, so we died." Isn't that just the way it goes?

Desdemona picked their way through the pieces of broken tambourine on the floor and claimed it was the weirdest gig they've been to. They then proceeded to play some poppy indie songs, with a woman singing outrageous melodies over the top. Occasionally she comes back to the right harmonies and sings with the keyboard player, but generally sounds well off the pitch. We'd been told it was 'some hippy band' and I guess that's a good way to describe it. Individually, all very good musicians (especially the bass player), but the collective sound doesn't seem to gel consistently enough.

When they know you they will run a three-piece, like Mogwai / Godspeed but much more impatient. Not for these boys the eternal build up, they set up their melodies then cut straight to the loud noisy part. I stayed for the intensity, because I like the ringing Big Muff - Delay - Reverb guitar sound. But after a few songs it gets a bit samey.