Category: Live Reports (Page 24 of 37)

BLANCMANGE + BERNHOLZ Live at London Red Gallery

20 May 2015 /

In some ways, ‘Semi Detached’ is BLANCMANGE’s technolstalgic album. It could be seen Neil Arthur’s personal recollections as an art student, set to a midlife narrative.

With tremendous wordplay, it acts as both a commentary on English suburban aspirations and the fact that this new long player is Arthur’s first of completely new material recorded without his long time partner-in-crime Stephen Luscombe.

A pair of weekend live shows at Shoreditch’s Red Gallery was chosen as the venue to launch this latest opus from BLANCMANGE, perhaps surprisingly only the fifth of their career. In the band were Ogoo Maia, album producer Adam Fuest and regular collaborator David Rhodes.

Opening the evening was BERNHOLZ, a member of the Brighton based artist collective Anti-Ghost Moon Ray which has also spawned GAZELLE TWIN and GREAT PAGANS.

Appearing on stage alone, he performed a brave, honest set of resonant art pop in an Eno-esquse tradition that also recalled that other synth duo from The Wirral, DALEK I LOVE YOU. Beginning with the starkly minimal new number ‘28’, the set then launched into two songs from his promising debut album ‘How Things Are Made’; ‘Austerity Boy’ and ‘Horses Part 2’ both merged to form a progressive adventure involving frantic sequencers and obscure rhythms. Other previously unheard numbers like ‘Animals’ and ‘Door’ continued on an experimental framework, but the set finished with a great new song ‘Alive’ which crossed PRINCE styled funk with TALKING HEADS.

Arriving to the wonderful instrumental ‘MKS Lover’, BLANCMANGE opened with ‘The Fall’, an eight minute number that actually referenced Mark E Smith’s cult combo as well as the London Underground. These Red Gallery shows were radically different to BLANCMANGE’s last two tours in support of ‘Happy Families Too’ and HEAVEN 17, as Neil Arthur promised some rarely played cult favourites as well as songs from ‘Semi Detached’.

The first of the those rare numbers was ‘I Would’, a song recorded for a John Peel session that ended up on the 12 inch B-side of ‘Living On The Ceiling’. Rearranged with a less frantic but more precise machine rhythm, despite being of 1981 vintage, it sounded totally within the aesthetic of ‘Semi Detached’ in a strangely slower but faster pace.

Neil Arthur was on fine comedic form, taking mock selfies during ‘Like I Do’ as a performance art satire on society’s obsession with mobile phones. And when introducing the most recent single ‘Paddington’, he told the audience it could have been named after Marylebone, Kings Cross or Liverpool Street railway stations but that ‘Paddington’ fitted best into the song! Featuring some of the Middle Eastern aesthetics that BLANCMANGE became known for in the mainstream, it took its place as a possible live favourite for the future.

Alternating between past and present, ‘Running Thin’, the other B-side from ‘Living On The Ceiling’ was also dusted off while the bouncy ‘Acid’ provided one of several dancing opportunities, demonstrating BLANCMANGE’s link with both art school and disco. While there was no ‘Useless’(possibly the most immediate song on ‘Semi Detached’), there was however an outing for the tremendous ‘Starf*cker’ from 2011’s ‘Blanc Burn’, a vicious BLACK GRAPE styled attack on the vapid celeb obsessed culture of today.

There was a further surprise in the shape of ‘Holiday Camp’ from BLANCMANGE’s debut EP ‘Irene & Mavis’. With Neil Arthur taking to a melodica on this instrumental, it was a fine homage to ‘The Big Ship’ from Eno’s ‘Another Green World’ long player.

With David Rhodes’ guitar taking centre stage on the moody ‘Bloody Hell Fire’, Neil Arthur gave it his all, as he did with the charismatic Ian Curtis meets David Byrne intensity on fine, dance friendly versions of ‘I Can’t Explain’, ‘Feel Me’ and ‘Blind Vision’

Returning for a joyous cover of CAN’s ‘I Want More’ and a rapturous ‘Living On The Ceiling’ to end the evening, Neil Arthur certainly delivered on his promise of a fan friendly set and looked like he thoroughly enjoyed performing the new and less well known material to an enthusiastic, receptive crowd. With a mature, artful approach on ‘Semi Detached’ and the new instrumental album ‘Nil By Mouth’, this can only be good for BLANCMANGE’s longevity as both a recording and live act in the 21st Century.

With thanks to Steve Malins at Random PR

BLANCMANGE’s ‘Semi Detached’ and ‘Nil By Mouth’ are both available on CD via the official online store at http://blancmange.tmstor.es/

https://www.blancmange.co.uk

https://www.facebook.com/BlancmangeMusic

BERNHOLZ’s ‘How Things Are Made’ is available in CD and download formats from http://bernholz.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/bernholzmusic

Text by Chi Ming Lai
Photos by Richard Price
20th May 2015

SISTA MANNEN PÅ JORDEN, VILE ELECTRODES + JOHN FRYER Live at A Secret Wish

22 April 2015 /


Following the success of ‘An Evening With The Swedish Synth’ in March 2014, Nordic friendly blog Cold War Night Life presented ‘A Secret Wish’, No2 in their occasional live series at The Lexington.

As with many quality events, it was attended by luminaries from the music scene. Among those present were Sarah Blackwood and Jonathan Barnbrook, the designer whose artwork has adorned recent releases by David Bowie, John Foxx and Hannah Peel.

The audience had an international flavour too, with attendees coming from Norway, Sweden, Finland, Italy, France and the United States.

While not wholly Swedish in line-up this time round, there was a definite Scandinavian slant with Swedish synth veterans SISTA MANNEN PÅ JORDEN making their debut UK appearance and the now Norwegian based studio legend John Fryer spinning a variety of music from his illustrious career. Representing the home crowd were VILE ELECTRODES, now more than fully established as the UK’s best independent synth exponents.

John Fryer cut his teeth with Daniel Miller and Eric Radcliffe at the legendary Blackwing Studios and his opening DJ set covered his wide ranging work for the 4AD and Mute labels.

With live enhancements, this included FAD GADGET’s ‘Back To Nature’, MODERN ENGLISH’s love song to accompany the nuclear apocalypse ‘I Melt With You’, M/A/R/R/S ‘Pump Up The Volume’, COCTEAU TWINS ‘Sugar Hiccup’ and the first DEPECHE MODE single ‘Dreaming Of Me’.

In an exclusive UK performance, Sweden’s SISTA MANNEN PÅ JORDEN (SMPJ – translated as “The Last Man on Earth”) gave an energetic performance that showed why they have been a cult live attraction in Sweden. Led by Eddie Bengtsson, best known for his work with S.P.O.C.K. and PAGE, he was accompanied by his faithful sideman by Christer Hermodsson.

Opening with the steadily building ‘Leonov’, a tribute to the Cosmonaut who was the first man to walk in space, the spacey floating vibe more than fitted in with SMPJ’s regular space travel and Sci-Fi themes. ‘Stanna Kvar’ followed and was a wonderfully immediate slice of melodic synthpop in the Vince Clarke vein, while last year’s single ‘Stadens Alla Ljus’ continued the enjoyable momentum.

While all of SMPJ’s songs are voiced “i Svenska”, Eddie Bengtsson was game enough to sing a few choruses in English. ‘All The City Lights’ from the new ‘Translate’ EP was a particular highlight.

“Are you impressed?” joked Eddie while glancing at his hand scribed lyric sheet. Bengtsson’s intense but charming personality certainly won the audience over as he led the odd ad-libed singalong and even joined the crowd down on the main floor.

The swung Schaffel of ‘Vem Gör Det Då’ gave some rhythmical variation, but there was one brilliant surprise towards the end of the set. It was what Bengstsson referred to as SMPJ’s “ULTRAVOX tribute” and it came in the form of ‘Allt Är Klart’, effectively a Swedish vocal version of their instrumental B-side ‘Alles Klar’. The hard, staccato synth bassline remained from the original, but the track was bolstered by a superb whirring solo from Hermodsson firmly in the ARP Odyssey tradition.

Climaxing ‘A Secret Wish’ were VILE ELECTRODES who played a fair percentage of fresh new material to give a taste of their much anticipated second album.

The mesmerising new single ‘Captive In Symmetry’ with its nod towards ‘Twin Peaks’ sounded sublime. Meanwhile, ‘Last Of The Lovers’ pointed towards the dreamy, but danceable Nordic soundscapes of RÖYKSOPP. Live favourites ‘Empire Of Wolves’, ‘Damaged Software’ and ‘Proximity’ provided everyone with some references of familiarity.

But the funereal ‘Dead Feed’ proved that Anais Neon and Martin Swan could do unsettling experimentation too. The old new number ‘Real 2 Reel Love’ closed proceedings, having been reworked from its original sub-NEW ORDER disco incarnation into a much darker, more progressive proposition.

Some of the audience at ‘A Secret Wish’ were overheard questioning whether VILE ELECTRODES were adding anything new to electronic pop, yet failed to categorically state any examples of what could be considered progress in the genre.

While VILE ELECTRODES may not be playing with ethereal dubstep and glitch techniques like PURITY RING, what Neon and The Swan do produce are memorable songs presented in an artistic, yet accessible manner.

In fact, the line-up of JOHN FRYER, SMPJ and VILE ELECTRODES at ‘A Secret Wish’ had a common thread running through ie good tunes. No matter that Elizabeth Fraser sounds like she’s invented her own language, Eddie Bengtsson rants in Swedish or Anais Neon intonates with a very English Home Counties accent… there is intuitive melody and soul.

Now if melody and soul is what’s making modern electronic pop music sound old-fashioned, then great; ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK and no doubt Cold War Night Life would like to have some more of that!

Cold War Night Life recently coined the term poptronica to describe VILE ELECTRODES and SMPJ. With the dedication and care that they have taken in their live projects, what they have proved is that the best electronic music events are those curated by genuine electronic music enthusiasts.

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK gives its warmest thanks to Simon Helm at Cold War Night Life

SISTA MANNEN PÅ JORDEN’s ‘Translate’ CD EP and ‘Stadens Alla Ljus’ CD single are available from http://hotstuff.se/sista-mannen-på-jorden/x-9189

The albums ‘Tredje Våningen’, ‘Luft’ and ‘Ligg Tyst Ett Tag Med’ are available as downloads via Amazon

http://www.moonbasealpha.space/

VILE ELECTRODES ‘Captive In Symmetry’ EP can be downloaded from https://vileelectrodes.bandcamp.com/album/captive-in-symmetry-ep

The CD EP is available from http://vileelectrodes.bigcartel.com/

https://www.facebook.com/vileelectrodes

http://www.vileelectrodes.com/

John Fryer has two new musical projects. SILVER GHOST SHIMMER’s debut album ‘Soft Landing’ is released on 1st May 2015. Meanwhile MURICIDAE’s ‘Tales From A Silent Ocean’ EP is available now via the usual digital outlets

https://www.facebook.com/John.Fryer.Official

https://www.facebook.com/silverghostshimmer.official

https://www.facebook.com/muricidaemusic

Text by Chi Ming Lai
Photos by Richard Price
22nd April 2015

On Tour with ANALOG ANGEL

4 April 2015 /

We’re Leaving… Where Are We Again…?

Everyone knows that touring in a band is glamorous with a capital G.

The sex, drugs, rock and roll, autograph sessions, adulation from the crowd and TV sets out of hotel windows… only it’s not!

When the highlight of the day is finding the dressing room, or even if the venue has a functioning toilet and that the promoter has bought food that didn’t come from the remainder aisle in Asda (Hedgehog and Pickle sandwich anyone…?), it tends to tarnish the idea of a tour being a cross between the last days of Rome and a quiet Wednesday night round Keith Moon’s gaff.

What follows are my observations from the recent COVENANT UK tour where my band ANALOG ANGEL were main support. No names have been changed; it would be pointless as the perpetrators are fairly identifiable. After this you may heed Noel Coward’s words and not put your daughter on the stage Mrs Worthington…

Day 1 Minus 1

…And actually minus about a further 60 plus days of prep for the off. There are so many things to arrange and what appeared to be loads of time ended up nearly not being enough. Transport, hotels, merchandise (hey it’s a tour, folk would want T-shirts, right?), cables, lots and lots of cables, that thing that does the thing and a setlist all had to be agreed.

With all this in place it was the traditional pre-tour curry with the chaps from COVENANT and associated friends at our local Indian. Everyone was impressed by the paper dosa and the large quantities of beer provided by the ever convivial promoter Barry Douglas. So to bed to not sleep wondering if I had packed that cable and drumsticks…

Day 1 – Glasgow

Hometown show and all the pressure that brings from performing in front of assorted friends and family. The venue for the show, The Classic Grand, is one we are very familiar with having played here dozens of times over the years. Sound and lights are some of the best for a hall this size in the UK and we are confident of kicking off the tour on the right note (just usually played in the wrong key…)

Typically of an opening night on a tour both bands are a little slow setting up at soundcheck but once ready, the consensus is we are sounding good. We are joined tonight as a local support by ADVANCE who at check premiere a fantastic version of Madonna’s ‘Frozen’, which garners much applause from those gathered. Then begins the first of many hours of waiting around. Derek goes for a walk, John rests his voice, I bugger around playing games on the iPad and Tracy buffs her latex.

The show goes well with the audience dancing away and few mistakes on my part, which is a rarity! The new song ‘Cradle To Grave’ is particularly well received with special mentions being given to the live drumming. Our post performance debrief concludes this tour is going to be fun! Load out brings the realization we have more kit with us than ever before so will need careful management to ensure we don’t leave anything behind (We at some point leave something behind)

12 noon call for the bus tomorrow so to bed, I am sharing with our merch guy / photographer / tour monkey Mark Walker so manage to get ‘some’ sleep… As I said ‘Bin Boy’, if I wanted woken at 4am with a light in my face I would have slept in a nearby bush…

Day 2 – Manchester

One rule learnt by friends on a tour last year was DON’T leave your gear in the van over night, it’s too much of a magnet for n’er do wells and rapscallions, so the day, as will the rest on tour, begins with much up and down stairs in the hotel to load what is quickly christened The Turd Bus.

Safely on board, we begin the drive south to Manchester. Originally the 3rd show on the tour, it was swapped with Newcastle as PLACEBO are play there this evening which would have the inevitable impact on ticket sales.

We have played The Academy 3 before, but this doesn’t mean we forget how the service lift worked when loading in with the associated hilarity this brought. The stage is pretty tight for 4 bands but as always, we make it work and the show goes down well.

Having almost shown my not unsubstantial bottom to the crowd whilst taking the equipment off stage, it was decided that I would probably not wear the kilt for the rest of the tour, there are many sensitive souls present after all.

We say hi to a load of folk at the merch stand and we catch a fair bit of COVENANT’s set for the first time on the tour. They are on fire. Eskil prowls the stage whilst Daniel and Andreas throw out some of the hardest hitting live electronics I have ever heard. Over a beer afterwards, it is agreed both bands are quickly hitting their stride.

So off to bed, which provides more issues as the hotel has put us in double rooms! AA are a close knit group but not that close! By the time we resolve this glitch, it’s almost 01:30; exhausted we crash…

Day 3 – Newcastle

We head slighty back north today to the Student Union at Newcastle University. The venue is massive with an equally large sound and light rig. Rico, COVENANT’s ‘lampy’ is in his element and lights up the stage at soundcheck like the end scene from ‘Close Encounters…’

We have the luxury of our own dressing room with a nice selection of beers. After struggling with the in house wi-fi, we settle down to wait for show time by basically messing around on Facebook.

Archie, our good friend who is acting as both driver and crew is a little thrown when asked to help Tracy into her latex outfit for the night, we tell him we all have to take turns and he suggests auctioning this role off on subsequent trips. He is quickly promoted to manager…

The set goes well tonight with the crowd really getting into the swing of things by the 2nd number, and it’s good to see so many familiar local friends in the audience. We all take turns manning the merch which is, we are happy to say, flying off the tables.

None of us can really get over the fact folk ask for us to sign something that isn’t a confession, but we spend a good 30 minutes at the end of the evening doing this and posing for pics. Then its back to the routine of load the Turd Bus, unload the Turd Bus at the hotel and bed.

Day 4 – Birmingham

The day dawns with us just missing breakfast by 2 minutes and to enforce the fact we can’t come in, the waiter closes the door on us with Derek and Archie in the dining room eating away. Ours is the last laugh however as we decamp to a local pub for Fat Boy Breakfasts which put the smile back on Tracy’s face…

Once all aboard the TB, it’s a short jaunt down the motorway to Birmingham. En route we meet another band at the service, MARMOZETS, and we have burgers and share tales of venues we are both playing on our respective tours. There is a weird camaraderie between bands on tour when paths cross, the same thing happened with the metal band DEATH in Manchester where their tour manager, a very large and heavily tattooed American gent, even asked to buy a T-shirt whilst we compared parking and toilet paper at stops around the UK.

The venue is what estate agents call compact and bijou, and it becomes quite apparent that logistically it’s going to be a challenge getting off stage safely as we need to drop gear off stage and outside the ladies toilet! We work out a guarding strategy and the set goes well. The hall itself heats up very, very quickly and it is an extremely sweaty set. We finish with the whole crowd bouncing along to some vigorous JB dancing and even calls for an encore. We decamp to the entrance foyer of the downstairs hall’s balcony which has been put aside as our dressing room… see I told you, its all glamour, where we do a couple of interviews, again something we still cant get used to being asked to do.

At the end of the evening, this area becomes an impromptu club when Eskil appears with the remains of both bands’ riders and a boombox, and decides to hold an impromptu party!

The sight of about 20 folk dancing in what we named Eskil’s Cupboard (the most exclusive nightclub in Birmingham that night or really any other) is one that I won’t forget in a hurry, no matter how hard I try. This continues on the bus, with the music of choice being Stockholm Swedish Black Metal, Archie isn’t a fan…

We continue the ‘party’ back in a room at our hotel with beers and tales of the old days and its then off to bed. Tomorrow is the big one we have been told, London…

Day 5 – London

The Islington Academy is the biggest venue we will play on the tour and also the closest to selling out. There are a few fragile members of the gang today; some may have peaked a bit early perhaps?

We arrive at the venue in good time only to discover the details given for load-in are wrong, so have to hang around for an hour before we can get the gear in. Bizarrely it transpires Tom, tonight’s engineer is from Glasgow!

So we work out who are mutual acquaintances from back in the day and swap updates on what they are doing these days. A top guy and good giver of sound! My girlfriend Helen is joining us for the last 2 dates on the tour so I pop to the station to meet her, it’s all very brief encounter, and we join Tracy and some friends for some very tasty Vietnamese pre show food.

It’s a big stage and hall and JB in particular takes advantage of the room during our set and especially the empty drum riser, though he gets a bit of a shock I think when Rico triggers the dry ice up his left trouser leg!

The room has a load of friends in it which drives us on to the best performance of the tour so far. As a happy birthday to our favourite online electronic music publication, I thank both Chi and ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK for the support they give us and the scene. Even that gets a round of applause!

Sadly some friends got stuck in traffic so missed us, but we play with Martin and Anais from the VILE ELECTRODES later this year so resolve to make amends with much beer at that point.

A trip to Mark on the Merch stand brings the news that we have sold out of all the CDs we took on the tour, thanks to all who bought one, we are still in shock! We repair to the dressing room to celebrate with some very potent digestif supplied by photographer extraordinaire Andreas Lechleiter which goes down a little too well.

Once again kit back to the hotel and bed… is it almost all over already…?!?!

Day 6 – Bristol

The last day of the tour dawns with the sad realization this is the last day. Both bands resolve to go out on a high.

Tonight, we are joined by our friends SINESTAR as local support at The Fleece, a proper old school venue. You can tell this by how sticky the floor is! That it’s under threat of closure from a developer of nearby flats is a disgrace as there are all too few places like this to play in the UK nowadays. I would encourage everyone to sign the petition to Save The Fleece.

All bands soundcheck quickly and we get ready for showtime by having a beer and a chat with assorted members of MESH who joined us on the Turd Bus from London. Much of the day is spent remembering and then forgetting the code for the dressing room door until Archie suggests taking a photo. See, management potential…

Again we play well; sadly we are really hitting our groove just as the tour ends. With the last drum beats of ‘Cradle To Grave’, it’s over, all too quickly. No-one seems to notice John almost falling off stage or that I play completely the wrong thing on one solo being put off by both Tracy and Mr Brown.

We have beers and perform some very dodgy dancing with all the wonderful friends that have turned up to the gig, even being joined by Eskil at the end of the ever excellent COVENANT set.

We expect to be able to have an end of tour drink at the hotel, but sadly it’s Sunday and the bar is closed. So various bottles etc appear in the foyer along with Eskil’s famous boombox and a DIY party is held. I head to bed with my girlfriend Helen who has been making sure I have been misbehaving, and I have work in the morning…

The Day After The 6 Nights Before

Tracy isn’t well, I have to go to London and everyone else has to head back to Scotland or, in COVENANT’s case, the airport. We part with sadness but also a fair sense of pride at a tour well played.

ANALOG ANGEL would like to thank COVENANT for their gracious invitation onto the tour, Archie Lining for driving all over and back, Mark ‘Binny Boy’ Walker for merch duties and photos, Frank Drake, Barry Douglas and Kev Morris for promoting such fabulous shows and all our friends, old and new, who turned up to support us, sing and dance and buy a T-shirt…

Same again next year…???

ANALOG ANGEL’s album ‘Trinity’, along with the new single ‘Your Breath’ are available via https://analog-angel.bandcamp.com/

http://analogangel.uk

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Analog-Angel/78071440078

Text by Ian Ferguson
Photos by Ian Ferguson, Mark Walker, Martin Mann and Andrew Garley
4th April 2015

UNDERWORLD Dubnobasswithmyheadman Live at Hammersmith Apollo

13 March 2015 /

“…and the light it burns my eyes. And I feel so dirty. Here comes Christ on crutches!”

Rewind back to 1994 and the charts were packed to the rafters with Eurodance…WHIGFIELD, CORONA, SNAP, HADDAWAY, CULTURE BEAT, 2 UNLIMITED… the list was pretty endless. So when an album of so-called “intelligent” dance music with stream of consciousness lyrics referencing Romford and Chigwell came out, the chances of it being much of a success seemed scarce. Yet, twenty years on and UNDERWORLD’s ‘Dubnobasswithmyheadman’ is rightly cited as a classic not just of the dance genre, but also electronic music in general.

Its broad spectrum of music from epic four-to-the-floor through to downtempo more reflective styles meant that UNDERWORLD, alongside LEFTFIELD, ORBITAL and THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS were able to push the buttons not just for dance music fans, but also for followers of electro and synthpop. After a testing the water one-off show at The Royal Festival Hall in London rapidly sold out, the following tour dates did the same and this was evidenced by a packed Hammersmith Apollo.

The album itself is pretty perfectly sequenced, and it would have been nonsensical to mess with the track order, ‘Dark & Long’ starting the set as per the album, with minimalistic, Tomato-styled visuals of the song titles being projected in a variety of font sizes behind the band. Due to not having the best seat in the house, it only became apparent a couple of tracks in that remaining founder member Rick Smith was absent, frontman Karl Hyde eventually confirming that he was ill and that long term collaborator Darren Pierce would be fulfilling / covering his role on stage.

This provided the evening with its KRAFTWERK moment, the realisation sinking in that Hyde (at that point in time) was the only remaining member from the line-up that made the album (DJ Darren Emerson is no longer part of the group anymore).

Once the set progressed, the initial disappointment gradually faded as tracks such as a 15 minute long ‘Mmm…Skyscraper I Love You’ helped turn the Apollo into a multi-tiered club, people abandoning their seats and some throwing dance shapes and reliving memories of both the album and formative UNDERWORLD tours.

The tracks themselves were pretty faithful reconstructions of the original album versions, which went against the improvisational ways that they would have been delivered back in the day, when the band (apparently) played live without rehearsing or having a setlist to follow.

‘Dirty Epic’ was a highpoint, reminding that a large part of UNDERWORLD’s sound relied on Hyde’s deeply personal lyrics and guitar playing, much of the former stemming from anecdotal stories from living and working in both New York, Minneapolis and, erm, Romford. Once the album performance was concluded with ‘M.E.’, the crowd was treated to renditions of the single ‘Rez’ and LEMON INTERRUPT B-side ‘Big Mouth’.

Both tracks literally raised the Apollo roof, the former spinning and stretching out the resonating synth riff for what seemed like ages before the drums kicked in. ‘Big Mouth’ was a sort of alter-ego to THE GRID’s ‘Swamp Thing’ as was an earlier rendition of ‘Cowgirl’, both taking country-style riffs and setting them in a dance context, Hyde’s harmonica playing receiving a rapturous reception at the end.

The tracks played throughout also reminded the listener that although aligned with dance music, they never, ever resorted to the cliché, eg the long, extended TR909 snare roll or daft, hedonistic “Move Your Body!” lyric, and it is this that has helped contribute to giving ‘Dubnobasswithmyheadman’ its longevity.

There was only going to be one way to climax the show and that was with the Bill Bailey inspired ‘Born Slippy (Nuxx)’ (Google it!), the PA seemed to raise a notch as the track’s thundering kick drum and accompanying rave-style lighting sent the Apollo crowd home on a high. Downsides?

Due the length of most of the tracks played, there was no room for the single ‘Two Months Off’ and the evening did prompt the usual question posed during an electronic show of “what is exactly being played live on stage?”.

These quibbles aside though, tonight reinforced how important ‘Dubnobasswithmyheadman’ is as a landmark electronic album and when its contemporaries have long since faded will live on as a classic of its kind.

‘Dubnobasswithmyheadman’ is available as a deluxe 2CD, vinyl double LP and deluxe download via Commercial Marketing

http://www.underworldlive.com/

https://www.facebook.com/underworldlive

Text and Photos by Paul Boddy
13th March 2015

NODE Live at The Royal College of Music

2 March 2015 /

Advancements in modern digital technology are a fantastic thing, or are they?

Whilst the debate still continues to rage about the pros and cons of vinyl versus digital music products, tonight brought up a telling parable as to whether the traditional methods of carrying out certain tasks should be tampered with.

A typical pre-gig meal turned into a farce when in an un-named South Kensington restaurant, instead of bringing the usual paper menus, the waiter brought a single iPad and attempted to explain the convoluted digital method of ordering by scrolling through multiple menus and then looked at us as if we were complete Luddites when we asked to order normally! A brief verbal scuffle and we were out the door and on our way to The Royal College of Music; a stones throw from The Royal Albert Hall and a refreshing change from many of the usual London venues.

After walking into the Amaryllis Fleming Concert Hall part of the venue, the attendees were confronted with the quite breathtaking sight of a large stage filled to the brim with stacks of vintage and current analogue modular synthesizers plus unusually for a technology-based gig, not an iPad in sight and just a singular laptop.

For those unfamiliar with NODE and if you missed ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK’s interview with three quarters of the line-up last June, they are a producer super group comprising Flood (DEPECHE MODE / NINE INCH NAILS / PJ HARVEY), Ed Buller (WHITE LIES / SUEDE / PULP), Dave Bessell and Mel Wesson. The group first gained some notoriety when performing a gig at Paddington railway station in 1995 during the commuter rush hour to support their debut album and towards the end of last year, released their long awaited second release of synthetic soundscapes ‘Node 2’ on Ian Boddy’s DiN imprint.

The presence of so many vintage synthesizers was probably enough visual stimulation for most of the audience, but in addition centre-stage was a circular PINK FLOYD-style screen onto which was projected a few subtle images / animations and live feeds of the performers on stage, plus some twinkling Christmas-style lights around Flood’s modular set-up added to the overall effect. Additionally, some effective uplighting under much of the equipment really evoked the halcyon days of early KRAFTWERK and TANGERINE DREAM performances.

The band started with an extended version of ‘Shikansen East’ from ‘Node 2’, the shifting chords eventually leading into the track’s hypnotic step sequencer patterns before coming back full circle to the intro passage again. The structure of the gig lovingly followed the format of a classic KLAUS SCHULZE double album… four 20 minute pieces, with a midpoint break to allow those present (including DURAN DURAN’s Nick Rhodes) to crowd around the front of the stage to survey the gear on stage.

What was refreshing was the improvisational and unpredictable nature of the show, occasionally sounds poked through the mix that were probably unintended, but all added to the experience of watching music that wasn’t pre-programmed and overtly computer generated.

Each performer had their own custom modular set-up plus additional synths including classic PPG, Oberheim, EMS, Moog and Sequential Circuits gear. Right of stage, Dave Bessell had a guitar strapped on for most of the gig, but instead of going for the Edgar Froese solo-style approach, he used it to add more subtle textures to the primarily electronic sounds on offer tonight.

To the right of the stage, Mel Wesson’s area featured a wonderful and very highly stacked Moog Modular. More centrally set-up were Flood and Ed Buller, each with their own preferred choice of synthesizers, the former having an EMS VCS3 and a Roland VP330 vocoder amongst his sonic arsenal.

The evening’s set climaxed in what was the most Berlin School-style track of the night, intricate step sequenced patterns filtering in and out in a hypnotic wash of sound before winding down and fading out to loud applause. The band took their bows at the front of the stage before coming back out for another curtain call, there was no encore, but the audience didn’t seem too concerned, having been treated to a night of electronic music that was probably the nearest you would get these days to seeing a vintage TANGERINE DREAM style analogue synth set.

A valid point could be raised as to whether this style of music is the only type that can be made with this equipment, and whether a more forward thinking, more innovative approach could be taken in places. But then again, if you went to see Eric Clapton or Brian May, you wouldn’t expect either of them to feed their trusty guitar through a Kaoss pad or glitch pedal.

It could also be argued that Mark Shreeve’s REDSHIFT project took more risks and developed this sound to a much higher level (especially from a live perspective) with similar equipment, but because they are now on hiatus, the chances of seeing a set-up anything like this nowadays is extremely limited.

Modern digital technology is often a brilliant thing, but sometimes there’s a lot to be said for an analogue approach and tonight’s overall experience certainly reinforced that. If NODE ever get to do another live performance, beg, steal or borrow a ticket, you won’t be disappointed.

‘Node’ and ‘Node2’ are released by DiN and available from http://www.din.org.uk/din/

http://www.nodesynth.com

https://www.facebook.com/nodesynth

Text and Photos by Paul Boddy
2nd March 2015

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