Shri, 1st April

Shorry about my mate, the stranger slurs in my ear,
he'sh a loverly guy really, he can't handle his drinksh you
know? I take his arm off my shoulders. The staggering drunk
loudmouth friend falls back into me again. We have a conversation that
he'll never remember about Shri's flute playing and how amazing the
drummer is. His mate shouts Play something FAST! I want to dance!
Play LOUDER! I grit my teeth and grin, he's been doing this all
night but the music's too good for this to get me down.

Shri has already started when we
get to Fiddlers and when I enter the main room I am shocked. Horrified,
in fact. I mean Fiddlers is a great place to go out. It has this whole
social club feeling, what with the canteen tables out the back and the
gig room with its brick walls and wooden floor. Lots of really good
people play there from the 'world music' stage and whenever I've gone
it's always been packed...

But not today. Today the good people of Bristol have decided that
they're not interested in listening to amazing Asian underground music.
Possibly they think it's all been done before, that it must be
impossible to keep breathing new life into this kind of urban beats
meets Bollywood and Indian Classical funk with lashings of hip hop and
drum and bass. The last time I saw Shri play was with his DJ companion
Badmarsh and the place was really jumping. There are a couple of classic
Badmarsh and Shri tunes, from the early Outcaste days that
develop into tabla vs bass vs drumkit improvised conversations, the
bowed bass is divine, the female singer sounds lovely and passionate and
the male singer... Well. Insane is the only word for it.

The music is still redolent of the early Asian underground days and
the same formulae still apply of carnatic melodies over an urban
beat. Since I love this combination and find something fundamentally
sublime about indian melodies (don't even get me started on the tabla)
the mix is just about perfect. The drum and bass is more complicated and
much further developed than Badmarsh and Shri's early work, more
4hero and old jungle rhythms. Being played live means that the
drummer wants to add much more variety to what he does, as well as have
much more interaction with the other musicians on the stage. Not all
live drum and bass is this good, London Elektricity got it horribly
wrong in their last incarnation where the 'amazing jungle drummer'
played the same rhythm over and over for an hour.

Shri himself is truly a master musician, equally of bass, flute and
tabla and I'm sure a great deal more besides. The flute playing is
particularly moving and even my drunk friend managed to keep his mouth
shut for at least five minutes, swaying gently in his alcohol cloud.

Although the performance is par excellence, the whole gig is
overshadowed by the emptiness of the place and there is an air of guilty
pleasure about the whole thing, almost as if we really think they should
come back later when more people have turned up. The band hide their
feelings about this of course, and even give us a half hour encore to
show their appreciation for us sticking around. The annoying Mr Drunk
Guy even gets his hand shaken by the man himself, who at one point tells
him to shut up and let everyone enjoy themselves. I would have stuck
around for more too, but they leave the stage and we have to go
home.

The Concretes, 4th April

• - Did you like our last album?
• - Yes!
• - The Carpenters!
• - What?

He looks sheepishly around, realising that everyone is laughing. Nothing! he says hastily as if he couldn't bear the thought of having to explain to a sweet and lovely Swedish girl exactly why he thinks her 8 piece band sound like the Carpenters. She shrugs and says well this song is from our new album and then they play us some more pop music.

I'm one of those people who doesn't like pop music. Recently it was pointed out to me that although I hate Western pop music almost indisciminately, put in an arabic melody or something foreign and I actually quite like it. It's the 'catchy' choruses, the major harmonies, the twee fallacy of it all. There's no point trying to explain I suppose, it's just something that is, thanks to manufactured bands and all that tripe.

But prejudice and shockingly 80's outfits (like TOTP all over again) notwithstanding, The Concretes have a certain self-conscious innocent charm and the music reflects this. For the most part it isn't particularly complicated, merely a harmonic backing to the lovely breathy voice of shy singer Victoria whispering little tales of love and loss into a be-flowered microphone. The more upbeat danceable songs have all the catchy choruses pop lovers could wish for and although they make me cringe at times, everyone else is smiling and happy, which is a first for the Bristol Academy so I have to appreciate that.

From beautiful harmonies to twee choruses and huge crescendos, the Concretes uncover most of the bases left behind by the early to mid nineties school of grungey British pop music (although less shouty) and add their own brand of quirky soft-voiced sing-along tunes. The encore consists of the scarey drummer singing on her own with guitar accompaniment and a crowd-pleaser with singalong chorus. I swear I hear some people humming it as we all leave.

Outside the Academy I am accused of now liking pop music because I didn't leave and start shouting at the moon. I won't defend myself, sometimes we have to muddy the waters of critical opinion and just enjoy the music for what it is. Nice.

Glitchnight, 5th April

This is my first Glitch
Night although it is their third, and so I arrive at the Arc Bar
somewhat prematurely. I might think that 9pm on a school night is early,
but the glitchy electronica types apparently do and so I try to read my
book (Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell ) in the dark while old
keyboards and laptops are plugged in and wires are untangled.

First up is href="http://www.myspace.com/loxodonta">Loxodonta, who sets
up some sort of keyboard loop using his moog synth. There is an
echoing dungeon feel in the dark room as the layers build up. He sings
and screams. When he screams the air stands up on the back of my neck
and it sounds like distant monsters howling for blood or tortured souls
in forgotten dungeons. There are breaks for knob-twiddling and more
layer building before the next bout of scariness, but the performance is
ended prematurely by a feedback disaster. Sorry, are you
finished? The soundguy asks. Yeah, why not?, says Lox.

href="http://www.myspace.com/fablesofglow">Glow are bass,
guitar, vocals and a mad looking drum-creating box. They play rousing
guitar-based songs, with fast electronic weird dance music beats. I say
weird, because they're not your usual pounding bass drum / hi hat dance
beats, oh no. They use all sorts of strange percussion
sounds/instruments to build the rhythms. The bass lines are great, all
their heads are moving and the band are really into what they're doing.
But it leaves me a bit cold, probably because it all seemed a bit too
like club-music-with-guitars and the singing doesn't seem to fit. Might
be better on record.

It's been about two years since I last saw href="http://www.myspace.com/gusset">Gusset and it is good
to note that while the inherent anarchy in the beats remains, the set as
a whole is tighter and more flowing. The jungle/grindcore based rhythms
are better pulled together making for some really interesting and head
shaking syncopation. There are chunks of well-known songs that have had
their very soul ripped out and given a new lease of life with broken
beats and effect sweeps. People are smiling, chatting and even dancing,
which is a first for a Gusset gig as far as I'm aware. Favourites
include a messed up Hazy Shade of Winter, bits of War of
the Worlds and John Peel saying 'Gusset'.

Conclusions? Fear, pain, resentment, laughter, noise, bass, beats,
mashup, alcohol, late night, bed.

Geisha Album Launch, 21st April

At last, I think, at last they have somehow managed to
force their dark brutal noise onto record! You wouldn't have
thought it was possible, this band should only be experienced in the
loudest of circumstances and it just doesn't seem right to
pigeonhole them into a little plastic disk. Their split 10"
inch with hideously slow doom metal band Tractor actually broke my
friend's record player when the noise vibrations made the needle jump
out of the groove. Tonight I resolve to watch an entire href="http://www.myspace.com/huntinglodge">Hunting Lodge
set, since I normally run away after a couple of minutes, so this was a
chance to be proved wrong, or just deafened, or both. It has been about
a year since I did this.

So does it do it for me this time? Well no. The bass sounds great,
the drummer is nearly naked and very entertaining, the guitar is shrill
and anarchic and the singer, well he sounds like a drunk, crazed lunatic
and acts the part. The music veers between messed up fast punk disco and
insane noise and I am amazed that any of the band know what is going on,
somehow managing to get all the stops, starts and jerky rhythms to
synchronise. There are a couple of moments that I quite like, where it
all comes together or the guitarist stops his high pitched madness and
plays a couple of twisted bluesey licks.

There is comedy here and I appreciate that, especially when the hairy
drummer attacks the bass player with a big bear hug. In the last song
they all change instruments, the bass player gives his bass to someone
in the crowd and lies on the floor with the microphone as a wall of
feedback and noise terror marks the end. This is the bit I most enjoy
(and not just because I know they're about to finish), because the free
noise and feedback seem much more in line with the noise this band makes
than the controlled dissonance of their actual songs.

The world's most difficult to Google metal band href="http://www.myspace.com/threadest1999">Thread follow,
playing fiercely heavy guitar riffs. They have the world's most stoned
drummer and a frontman who stalks the room and creates a semicircle of
space in front of the stage as people back out of the way. At the loud
screaming bits he tries to lean into the audience but they push him
forwards and pretend they hadn't noticed. The bassist has his back to us
and shares shouting duties. It's a good noise from just three
instruments that develops into more interesting rock breaks with short
repeated lyric lines building tension before the next tirade erupts and
grabs you by the ears.

When href="http://www.myspace.com/mugstar">Mugstar take the
stage and transport us with wave upon wave of thunderous ostinato rock
the energy of the evening steps up a level. They manage to keep the
repetition of just one chord interesting and although the actual beat is
fast, the harmonies and rhythm develop slowly and create resonances that
you only notice because you're expecting future moments to sound like
past. A simple riff develops into an extended techno moment, which seems
to go on and on, we are all waiting for them to falter, as if the bass
player must lose the offbeat at some point - the beat is so fast and
he's wandering about the crowd - but he doesn't and when the breaks come
they are glorious, the distortion is powerful, each new section driving
onwards and upwards. Post rock as dance music? Perhaps. It is a truly
uplifting experience anyway.

A cursory glance at my reviews page will
show how many times I've seen href="http://www.myspace.com/geishanoiseresearchgroup">Geisha play live and a quick read will also tell you that I like them. Lots.
It's something about the fast riffing, the volume, the screaming. The
way you feel like they are trapped inside your head, on fire and trying
to climb out through your eyeballs while the building is falling down.
It's the utter madness of it all, the euphoria you feel as if the music
itself manages to release endorphins in to your bloodstream. I never go
to a Geisha gig and fail to laugh my arse off, albeit a little nervously
because it seems rude to laugh when the music is so angry.

Tonight is no exception. Geisha's sound has grown over the last
couple of years and is now a lot more than just Fast Thrash Noise With
Shouting. There are beautiful moments of clarity and harmony which make
the loud parts more satisfying and even elements of more elaborate rock
music, complete with delayed-and-effected guitar solos.

There is an 'incident' with href="http://www.myspace.com/binray">Binray, who had been
booked to play after the gig. He is kicking off as we
leave but the Croft 's owner pulls the plug after a few minutes. Apparently
people were leaving in droves, mind expansion (or perhaps more fittingly, 'explosion') a bit too much for them or
something.

Disappointed at the lack of Geisha albums actually on sale, I take
the sampler CD home and am very impressed with the sound. The vocals
aren't nearly as loud as I would like, but the overall sound is great.
(EDIT: This has now been cancelled: Not sure whether CD's can truly capture the live experience though,
which you can hear when they play live on fm">Resonance FM, this Friday the 5th May at 10:30pm.)

Ugly Duckling, 28th April

It is a great night of gangstas and playas down in href="http://www.fiddlers.co.uk/">Fiddlers, Bedminster. We park the
car just outside Asda, which is one of the great assets of this club.
Good parking I mean not Asda, which is usually closed this time of
night, its carpark a skid pan for young drivers and trolly
terrorists.

I remember living down here in a house just off East Street, the
flats above the shops were full of drug dealers and a man used to sell
guns and rifle crossbows out the back of his car behind us. I used my
time in Bemmy wisely, augmenting my collection of CDs, videos and
guitars from Cash Convertors while pretending to work on my degree and
popping to Fiddlers every time they had a world music gig. But that was
a long time ago. These days I live in the Hood, very close to where I
did my time for the community of St
Pauls, a place I have never given an apostrophe, although tradition
demands it.

In the darkened low-ceiling'd room the excited crowd are all focussed
on the back room, heads nodding seriously as Two DJs take turns to
impress each other and astound the rest of us. You get the impression
that DJ
Moneyshot and his mate are here as much for themselves as
for the audience, as if they would be doing this at home anyway. The
music is mix-tape mashups, old disco songs with funky hip hop beats,
pop, even a bit of Radiohead gets the treatment and it's a great start
to the evening.

Giant
Panda take the stage while I'm yearning for some live hip
hop and here we are with a classic old school sound. A bit of audience
participation paves the way nicely for the heroes of the evening,
Ugly
Duckling. If you haven't seen or heard them DO IT NOW. This
band are hilarious, comedy sketches and a refreshing hip hop dissing of
all that 'tough guy' macho nonsense (that I also quite like) other
rappers go for.

In the manner of a man unable to finish his review: out of ten, I'd
give them a muffin.