Geisha / Hunting Lodge / Noxagt, 10th Oct

I haven't done much writing about music lately, so here's to a new Category on Skip The Budgie: REVIEWS! Anyone who's read my other site, Slave to the Music will know that I do this a lot, but I decide grudgingly to go on with just the one main web site, thank you very much. All those reviews will come over here one day, when I have Full Control over Skip. It was all fun and taught me a lot about PHP and web pages at a time when I was sad and lonely, but that's all over now. So on with the 'reviewing', heh.

As it was my birthday last Friday, I have a Birthday Week of gigs and drunkenness. Four gigs, a party and a romantic night in make for a pretty good week I think, even if it does mean I'll be pretty sleepy in the Awake Times. On Monday Geisha are stunning again. Playing to about 8 people in a tiny pub (the Junction) they give it their all and play a couple of new songs. I'm told they did five songs in the 40 minutes or so that they played, a band after my own heart. At one point, there is a Mars Volta -esque prog-psychedelic guitar solo with Geisha noise breaks and yes, it is awesome. I can't wait for the album, I just hope they manage to get it recorded well.

I avoid Hunting Lodge . I don't understand the noise they make, the bass has no bass, there is no midrange guitar, apparently (I'm told because I was outside) they don't play the noise-disco songs they used to anymore. Not that I'd like those either. It's just not metal enough for me.

Noxagt are very young and play instrumental metal, not as polished as it could but my scepticism is drowned out as I get caught up in the riffs and the music. It could be the alcohol, but they certainly have enough energy, some good hooks and narrative to keep me interested. Mostly though, I just think that they are very young.

Chartwell Dutiro, 12th Oct

A trip down memory lane for me, a re-awakening of the love of Zimbabwean music and a film, Mbira Music - Spirit of the People. Made in 1990, it's a documentary about the role of music in the war of independence in Zimbabwe, how the music sounds happy when it is really angry, how the words and the songs kept the people's spirits up and helped them to unite against the colonialists. The best line of the film award goes to the White general (was it actually Ian Smith? I don't know what he looks like) who says The time of war is behind us, let us unite and work together for we are no longer enemies. This is a bloody good country, it's a bloody great country and we don't care WHAT you want to call it. I am minded of the Holy Grail line 'let's not fight about who killed who'... There is some fantastic music on there, some names I hadn't heard of (to my shame) like Comrade Chinx, who in this film is portrayed as a hero, leading the revolution in song.

Sadly, Comrade Chinx remained loyal to the ruling party long after Mugabe went mad, and has himself recently become an ironic victim of the big reform operation, winding up in hospital earlier this year after his mansion was razed to the ground after he shot at the Police. Yet another example of the madness over there.

Anyway. Music. After the film, Chartwell Dutiro takes to the stage in traditional Kaftan, Mbira in hand. After a brief soundcheck he begins to sing. We are entranced, he encourages audience participation and we all sing under our breath, gathering confidence as the night goes on. It is strange to be doing this here, in a cinema. It all seems so formal. Yet Chartwell is charming, the music is beautiful and we are entranced. I resolve to give more time to African music, it's in my roots. Well my bro was born there... I tell people I grew up in Zimbabwe, but really it was just five formative years of my life - ages 5-10. Tis indeed a tragedy what is going on over there...

Roy Harper, 13th Oct

Roy Harper has lost his marbles. Apparently this happened quite a long time ago (for those in the know), sadly I am not one of these, I am here because I felt I should hear at first hand what an underrated yet highly influential musician actually sounds like. The rambling between songs is as much a part of the performance as the music itself. We are treated to stories of sex, aliens, music and bad jokes. A rant about religion is all the more startling, given that he is sitting in a church with an enormous Jesus behind him! Still, God didn't seem to mind so much, perhaps lending a hand with the reverb, which in St Georges is pretty substantial.

The support is from Matt Churchill , a young Scouse guitar genius. He plays acoustic music of deep complexity and much speedy scales. Like classical jazz blues with a LOT of chorus and reverb. Some of it is great, ethereal. As with everone else these days, he gets out a looper and proceeds to play a track that wouldn't be out of place on a boyzone record. This isn't a compliment.

Roy, on the other hand, sings wavering folk blues. He ventures into more progressive rock tunes occasionally and even though this is an all acoustic gig they manage to come across really well. He is joined on jazz wibbling by Matt Churchill who manages to contain himself enough to compliment the songs well.

Two big problems, are the fact that he insists on using tons of reverb in an already echoey hall and that Flying Saucers song is shit. I mean really bad. Still on the whole it is a very entertaining evening...

Los De Abajo, 15th Oct

Ozomatli were great when I first 'discovered' them back in 1999. they had just the right mix of multicultural, high energy world music fused with hiphop and always gave an amazing live performance. This was a band that always seemed to have more fun than the audience. Sadly this energy seems to have left the music, which over the last two albums seems to have become stale and bland, diluted with over-sentimental songs erring dangerously towards easy listening lift music. Ouch. Did I say that? Not that I'm bitter or anything. Like The Egg . They were GREAT and they fscked it up, a combination of the fantastic wahwah guitarist leaving and the keyboard player turning himself up too much.

But don't worry about all that, because Los De Abajo have been around just as long and they haven't forgotten how to have a party. The music is a cross between Ozomatli and Manu Chao /Mano Negra, a sprinkling of reggae and lots of ska with the emphasis on Mexican tunes and song styles. There is a political bent to a lot of the songs, although the only bit we really understand is when someone comes out in a George Bush mask and wearing Zapatista hero* masks, they all shout 'you are the terrorist' and chase him off stage. For some inexplicable reason, this song also features a Kiss mask but I didn't really get THAT message!

Fantastic stuff. Shame on all the peeps who didn't go! And that means YOU. The CD is great too, there's even a bit of Russian Cossack madness on there!

• *I forget his name. begins with B - I saw a cartoon where he wrestled all the politicians and military leaders and won the hearts of the people...

Yat Kha, 20th Oct

Back to St Georges Brandon Hill for some throat-singing madness. We're a bit early so we stop off in my old University haunt the Boston Tea Party for a huge coffee so that I'm fully awake for the great Yat Kha . They still have the appalling paintings that no-one wants to buy and over-priced sandwiches.

Support is from Babar Luck , who is a sarf Laandan asian innit with a big beard, a big personality, lots of enthusiasm and absolutely no sense of harmony. This man is seriously the most tone deaf person I've had the displeasure of having to sit through. I'm sure a kinder person than me would say he makes up for it in charisma, but hearing someone sing the same note in a different key to the one he's playing, even when he does 'funny' covers of Bob Marley, U2 (One Love) and others really drove me nuts. Yes, his heart is in the right place but even here he is tragically inaccurate, comparing Mandela to Ghandi as non-violent protestors. Obviously his research into the ANC is somewhat lacking. His friends (big-up to Ed and the bristol Massive) have a good time, but we sit in stunned silence and breathe a big sigh of relief when he goes. That's worth a clap.

At last Albert Kuzhevin and his crazy band (yes the drummer IS called Rasputin) begin with a cover of Wild Mountain time, sung in a voice that threatens to vibrate the very building itself. The new album is all covers, where the same treatment is given to songs like Black Magic Woman and Exodus. This could get a bit boring, since it's only a gimmick really (hey let's give all these songs the Yat Kha treatment!) but there's enough old songs and variety in their styles to keep it interesting.

But it's more than interesting, there are moments of astounding beauty, the obligatory ooh-eh oowey-oowey-yah, ooh-eh oowey-oowey-yah singalong and Albert indulging his heavy metal background with white noise and furious guitar solos. The more traditional sounding songs are fantastic and the sound of the Igil makes me want to cry. But the rasta bassman makes me laugh...

Anyone who hasn't yet discovered the folk/rock/Tuvinian crossover of Yat Kha would do well to start learning, it's not just about the improbably deep voices and the crazy harmonic throat singing, the music is great and will definitely put a big smile on your face.

Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, 27th Oct

There is so little and yet so much to say about this electrifying performance from this much lauded Ravi Shankar disciple, Vishwa Mohan Bhatt . The man likes his slide guitar, but it's not really Indian enough, so he adds a few extra strings - 14 of them and one of they gourd things that makes it resonate. Thus is born a guitar/sitar/veena hybrid called the Mohan Veena which has a strange sound, both a combination of various instruments and sometimes just like a guitar.

As with a lot of these concerts, a short explanation is needed to prepare the ignorant Westerners for what they are about to experience. This is a Rag, this is how it goes, there is this melody and I am going to make some things up and see what happens. What happens, is a slowly building deeply atmospheric and emotional rollercoaster as father and son bounce ideas off each other, working themselves into a frenzy of sliding and virtuosity, reaping an almost infinite variety of sounds from their instruments which are increasingly appearing to be so much an extension of themselves... And relax.

When the tabla player joins in, the effect as these three weave around each other, playing games, repetition, showing off, pushing each other, trying to catch each other out we are all transfixed. Her hands are a blur and she more than matches the two guitarists, complementing their every moving and adding several new dimensions to the music, which is amazing on so many levels. I struggle to find the beat, the taal and the development of the rag often becomes so complex. Really I just give up in the end and let the music wash through me and carry me along with it. I'd have to practise to understand it like the true afficionados do.

After two hours we emerge blinking into the night, which seems strange and new, as if I have undergone a great catharsis of the soul. This has certainly been the best of the three St Georges Concerts by quite some way.