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The Scala, London 12 April 2011
 Sabbath Assembly is the rather surprising spin-off from noise-manglers and avant scribblers the No-Neck Blues Band. Surprising why, exactly? Not just because they show that, yes, they are actually good musicians, but that they can also play tight, Seventies-style power pop of the sort which has a solid groove at its heart and an earnestly-sharp, clear guitar raising the rooves, church-band style, as they waft in on a hefty block of incense which flames up like the herald of the light bringer himself. In this case though, singer Jex Thoth is praising Lucifer as well as JHVH and the Lord Jesus Christ through the medium of hymns penned by the very whacked-out hippy psychedelic sect The Process Church of Final Judgment. Once this rather odd factor becomes
Continue reading Earth/Beak>/Sabbath Assembly (live) [...]
The Scala, London 11 December 2010
The first time I saw The Orb play live was at the time of the release of their album Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld. At that time the techno/ambient/trance scene was at an all-time high with a plethora of new bands using psychedelic images and pushing at making the underground become overground. The Orb’s “Little Fluffy Clouds” drifted through the spring and summer airwaves (well they did in my house), and their gig at The Fridge in Brixton was packed with sweaty dancing bodies.
Fast forward to 2010 and The Orb is a slightly different prospect. The gig tonight is only half full and I kept glancing around to see if there would be a final surge of people once The Orb hit the stage at 11.30. I’m not sure why there was a lack
Continue reading The Orb (live) [...]
 The Scala, London 26 July 2009
 Southern Lord have been doing good business resurrecting their roster from the first time round, with some spectacularly lavish re-releases from Burning Witch, for example, making it strange to reflect that their twentieth anniversary isn’t too far off yet… So it’s only to be applauded that Greg Anderson and Stephen O’Malley of Sunn0))) (etc) are back with Runhild Gammelsæter and the rest of Thorr’s Hammer for tonight’s post-Supersonic festival gig – the chance for Londoners who couldn’t – or possibly wouldn’t – make the trip to Birmingham for one of the year’s crucial weekends of stupendously good music from around the world
Continue reading Corrupted/Thorr’s Hammer (live) [...]
The Scala, London 20th November 2007
This has been a long time coming. Last time I tried to see Jesu (supporting Jarboe, in this very venue) it got scaled down to a Justin Broadrick solo perfomance as Final, which consisted of him hunched over his laptop making incredible noises. Now, while this may have sounded awesome, on every other level there was little to distinguish between the experience and watching a young Paul Weller playing World of Warcraft. And when I say young, I mean very young indeed. Considering Mr Broadrick’s pushing 40, and the album which really made his name as King Of Distorted Guitars, Godflesh‘s Streetcleaner, is nearly half that old itself, he really does seem to have the fresh-faced, shy yet intense demeanour of a high school shooter. Drummer Ted Parsons, on the other hand,
Continue reading Jesu (live) [...]
The Scala, London 29th May 2007
 Part Chimp not only open with a big, metallic stoner rumble, they compound matters by using almost the exact riff from “Electric Funeral” to confirm that they are coming from a location somewhere between Black Sabbath and The Melvins. So then its heads down for an excercise in riffology, volume and mass squared by amplification, with the product being ringing ears and nodding heads. Under a gathering fug of smoke, spotlights and noise, it’s exactly like being blinded, deafened and punched in the thorax by bass and feedback – a singular experience, and one not without its enjoyable aspects, as Part Chimp
Continue reading Comets On Fire/Part Chimp (live) [...]
The Scala, London 12 October 2003
 Witnessing Laibach perform onstage is guaranteed to be a spectacular experience – not in the form of flaming scenery, explosives or even sheer brutalist noise, but because they put on a show. A proper show with much too much in common with a political rally for some tastes, but a theatrical event nonetheless, and one which grips their audience with an impassioned fervour.
 As the group have moved on to a weighty Electro/Techno sound since their messing with the heaviest of Metal for their previous visits to the UK, they arrive onstage to the fading strains of the Blue Danube in high-collared black clubwear, heads shaved, or hair slicked back with bulbous shades for bassist and keyboardist respectively.
Continue reading Laibach (live) [...]
 The Scala, London 21st March 2001
In tow with the usual Krautrock London posse I arrived at The Scala just in time to hear lots of talk about how a lot of people have not been here since it was a infamous cinema. Though I never saw it in its glory, the building is still impressive with its loads of marble and Art Deco swirly tiles not quite lost in the stripped-pine modern re-structure. Other talk in the grand foyer was about the nearly embarrassing quantity of people here to see the magnificent performers on hand. It was true, there was a significant lack of bodies present considering the even to be, but nevermind, the Scala is a big venue, and most crowds might seem small inside it.
 The nights music began
Continue reading Damo Suzuki’s Network/Rothko (live) [...]
The Scratch Club
The Scala, London 25th March 1999
First of all, the venue; once upon a time, The Scala was both the worst and best of London’s independent cinemas – terrible seats, ropey sound and a generally scuzzy atmosphere, saved by the murals, the cat and a programming selection which included all-night shod of the lowest possible taste, saved by the occasional hard-to-see gem. Then came the Clockwork Orange debacle, and all was quiet. Until that is the scaffolding appeared a year or so back, and it was obvious that something was on the move – would it be another Christian salvage centre of the New Millennial Jerusalem? Nope, The Scala is reborn as a club venue in the seediest part of town (Zero Tolerance policies excepted, and not much cop as it happens if tonight’s exterior street scene
Continue reading Speedranch ^Jansky Noise/Stock, Hausen & Walkman/2nd Gen/Faultline (live) [...]
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