Boy did Laibach bring the drama … the first third of the show cherry-picking their back catalogue, starting with a mangled noise-fest with lots of slanted perspectives and controlled chaos. A scampering scrapyard of debris and screeching guitar, the drummer coming out from behind his kit to supply an eerie air-raid drone from a spinning air-pipe as the keyboardist’s chords conjured a host of bent up, shattered shapes.
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Stereocilia was here for the launch of his latest album Phases, but joining him on the bill was Deb Googe of My Bloody Valentine and Thurston Moore's band fame, and local soon-to-be legends Ex Agent.
Bristol 10 January 2025 Support for The Jesus Lizard‘s eagerly awaited trip to The Fleece in Bristol came from that city’s own purveyors of mutant post-punk hip hop, Lice. Having not seen them since their extraordinary set at the Bristol Psych Fest back in the summer of 2017 where it was like The Beastie Boys fronting The Birthday Party. Since then, they seem to have picked up a […]
With their creative stock having risen again off the back of last year’s Music For KIDS archival release on Domino and this year’s surprisingly strong new studio album Walk Thru Me on Joyful Noise, it’s perhaps no surprise that John Davis and Lou Barlow’s reunion as The Folk Implosion has continued so wholeheartedly for a quite lengthy UK tour.
Massive drums, double bass and a shiny grand piano meant The Necks were crammed into what remained of the stage. A physically crowded space that suited the band’s intimate interlock.
Man, the energy was insane — breathtakingly direct, leading to me totally losing it (maybe to the gritty pump of “Devoción”?), my body all salvo-daggered, head-flinging abandon as the electronics twerked and tasered. My kinda dance music for sure ...
London 24 October 2024 It was rather a dull day to traipse halfway across London for a gig, but I had high hopes that Goat were going to bring some life and spectacle to the evening. First though, a few words on the venue, the East End’s Troxy in Limehouse. This is the second time I’d been here after last year’s Swans gig and it’s clear that this […]
Taking their time, Godspeed You! Black Emperor slowly assembled on the stage, each taking root to their wares, adding to the prevailing dynamics. The scratched letters of hope jump on the illuminated wall behind the semi-circle of performers. The gathering storm sonically spiring, conspiring, sliding skilfully into view. Haven’t seen Godspeed live since the early 2000s (though I continued to buy their wares) and I’m glad to report they’ve lost none of their majesty. That sad elixir, the stuttering stigmata of that dogged perseverance and explosive deliverance all still razor sharp.
Recent material lists towards the two-minute assault and it's all fun. It occurred to me that given the tempos and the fact that it's sequenced drums, Melt-Banana may well be the world's most successful speedcore band on a technical level. It's got a lot of similarities with punk and hardcore, but it has an intensity that's uncommon to guitar music, for my money. So let's say they're a speedcore band.
Bristol 20 September 2024 Well this is a real trip down memory lane. Not only are Seefeel on the road (the last time I saw them was 1995) with the first new material in thirteen years, but they have brought AR Kane along with them to a sold-out Strange Brew. This relatively new venue is really beginning to find its feet in the city, putting on a whole […]
Over the years the band's sound has changed, but has still remained uniquely ‘them’; no other band sounds like Neubauten. When I first saw them they were the sound of the dynamite exploding the collapsing new building -- now they are more akin to the dust and debris falling to the ground in slow motion.
Birmingham 30 August – 1 September 2024 Being comprehensive with festival reviews is always a nightmare, so apologies upfront for those I missed. I’d like to blame part of that on the venues being just a smidge further away from each other that I’d like, and one of them being an O2 (and therefore a faff). Not to downplay the festival — lots of good work gone into […]
Sharp and guttural -- the vocals beam, the more romantically inclined tracks literally glowing. Kim’s slow-roasted delivery unwrapping in your ears… the vibrating brilliance of "Off You" caught in a gentle hula-skirted lilac; the spiralling quaffs of "Do You Love Me Now", the nocturnal burn of the only track from Mountain Battles they played, "Night Of Joy", a gentle melancholic wonder that clung warmly to you.
I must admit, I was expecting more of the soundtrack stuff, so to see him front and centre, really living the songs and acting the parts was quite a revelation with his lovely black and white Airline guitar part of the scene. In front of him was a small electronic device which contained backing elements, but really it was about the interaction of the trio that made the show pop.
After what seems like an interminable winter, summer finally seems to have arrived in glorious sunshine, heralded somewhat weirdly by the Northern Lights appearing across London the previous night. If that isn’t a sign of the north marching south, I don’t know what is, so what could be better than New Model Army live at the Roundhouse?
Oh, a festival of ugly music - how could I refuse? Quite a varied line up too, the action split between two rooms -- the main stage and a cellar-like space further into the venue.
Of all the times we’ve seen SunnO))) in action, this is definitely the best. The doom theatrics seem to be taken to a new level, visually grasping the apocalyptic with fresh conviction, the red disc lights behind glowing like dying suns cloaked in smokey blooms. Beacons shivering out in radiating spokes of arrowing light as the sound luxuriates in the smouldering pyroclastic cliff fall.
Bristol 13 November 2023 Reimagining Suicide’s legacy they go, Lydia Lunch clutching her double microphones like a praying mantis — one’s all reverbed echo, the other sounds like pulled sellotape. Her vocals incoherently fall and flail around, gift-wrapped in Marc Hurtado‘s steely squall. His inky yells adding to the action as the sound brutally lunges at you, slams and screeches in slippery synchronicity. At one point it sounds […]