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.
live reviews
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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 […]
Their music often feels like a dark comfort blanket that you could pull around yourself, relax into — and tonight it’s hitting the spot. A brooding brew of blurring intention and fleeting impression that grasps at and enhances the storyteller’s weave of tangible disappointments with the human animal and the redeeming embrace of love.
When establishments come under new management there are sometimes doubts from the old clientele about whether it would be as good as it was before, whether it will have the same ambience and charm or even quirkiness. Tonight, a packed house at the Union Chapel has no doubts that this revamped Penguin Café still has everything that the old one did and has added some delicious extras as well.
London 8 November 2023 Last time I saw Laibach, it was here in this very theatre, and after a set comprising both the entirety of The Sound Of Music (as previously performed in North Korea) and a slew of “greatest hits”, they’d confounded everyone by having Milan Fras come on […]
Myrkur gives a stripped-down performance of four tracks from the new album with herself on vocals, accompanied by a seated guitar player adding a darker metal edge to her drones and piano playing.
Now, a lot of dance music leaves me a bit nonplussed, but Buried Treasure always seem to deliver, and by midnight, label honcho Alan Gubby smashed it straight into the fun zone with some roster rainbows.
Modern opera is thriving at the moment with new pieces being commissioned regularly and finding homes in small theatres, such as The Arcola next to Café OTO in Dalston and various other venues. Small production companies have been springing up for a few years now, bringing not only reworking of the classics but also brand new operas that are a mixture of the instantly recognisable in structure and also more challenging work that keeps modern opera vibrant.
And of course we've got Andrew Eldritch, and while his voice may not be what it was, the stage presence is still there in fucking spades. I mean, back in their heyday he hugged the mic stand and didn't really do a great deal. These days he's a much more active presence, stalking and prowling the stage like a meth-head feline.
And then it's time for Oxbow, and as soon as they kick in I'm kicking myself for missing out on them for so long. Eugene may not actually fight anyone, but he's definitely taken some lessons from The Gospel According to Iggy (and we all know the text) -- he knows in his bones that a good frontman needs to be a bit scary, a lot charismatic and be able to carry a tune. And also -- and this is key -- to get his kit off whenever possible.
...tonight they're playing at the Troxy off the back of their latest criticially-acclaimed release The Beggar. Well, technically off the back of their last two albums, a whole shitload of dates for Leaving Meaning having been cancelled during Covid. Which was something of a double-edged sword for Swans fans, as being unable to tour for one album meant Gira found himself writing material for another one.
Ueda’s metal prayer paddles aloft in rattling baptism, added to by seashells and firefly frets, her voice soaring on through, hands outstretched, as the keys and guitars jiver-jade a proggy reverie, her face clearly smiling from within the ricocheting richness of it all.
Roedelius is now eighty-eight years old and has had a fifty-four-year career in music, starting with the formation of Kluster in 1969 (who later changed their name to Cluster). He then ventured in to the more soporific tones of slightly more ambient sounds with Harmonia, which then lead him to recording three albums with Brian Eno in the mid-seventies. Since then, he has released dozens of solo albums and many collaborations, including one with former Japan keyboard player Richard Barbieri.
YOU WANTED THE BEST (I was fifteen in 1980 and Kiss were one of the first bands I ever saw live), YOU GOT THE BEST (that show has stayed with me all these years making me a fan), THE HOTTEST BAND IN THE WORLD (here I am forty-three years later to bid a fond farewell to….) KISS!
Pram’s musical elves were on fine form, injecting this fine summer’s evening with their own special brand of skewered cuteness. Everyone here loves it, each track resulting in massive applause.
Bristol 29 November 2022 Stereocilia plied an exquisite soundscape of guitar-generated ambience. A beaming iridescence of infinite frets blooming in circling sand, layered up and waspy, later sipping some sweet subterranean gloom splattered in shivering petroleums and graining howl. The back of the guitar’s neck sending thundery quakes on through, […]
London 5 November 2022 The UK 2022: it’s Saturday and it’s raining; not in a Blade Runner kind of way, with neon lights and futuristic vistas, but in a drab way that only the UK knows how to do with aplomb.
London 16 July 2022 Journey’s End is one of those rare “are we really in London” type of venues. A leafy relaxed, creatively crafted affair at odds with the industrialised ugliness of its surrounds, the gig itself taking place in what looked like a reclaimed school hall. UnicaZürn are first […]