Stop The Panic
The Spitz, London
28th February 2000
O! if all nights out could be so entertaining! A New Orleans style jam session set up between avuncular B.J. Cole (occasional collaborator with Spiritualized) and chin-pierced Electro Bohemian Luke Vibert (sometimes Wagon Christ and Plug) and a couple of friends to boot. And not New Orleans because of the Jazz like you might be thinking, but because of the unity, the compiling of talents from such different discipines, because of how much fun they had while doing it. A mournful and then playfull ignition between friends, so driving with bleepsome Technoid beats and crunchy Drum and Bass underbeats, the pedal steel pulsing like a Juno and bongos looming. The Southwestern, the south Pacific, south of obvious, south of dreaming, and just south of playland. Cole and Vibert are soon joined onstage by sharp-suited Bobby Valentino with his dynamic fiddle to jam… jammm, exchanging banter between themselves and the audience, sharing their bonhomie and letting us all fully into their enthusiasm; and when that was over, the applause was magic (and someone called out “I love you”). Mr. Valentino (looking a bit like Clark Gable) lent his violin to colour the picture in of this very fantastical, very movie-like set. Did shows used to be like this? This energetic, this distracting? This is why it reminds me so of New Orleans, for they still do it all this way there.
Now sit back and imagine the coupling of two such foreign to one another musical entities; a pedal steel guitar mixed up with found source-sampled, synthesized ultra-now type noise. The union of these two sources cancelled out all my misgivings, and in a way they cancelled out each other. Mr. Cole did not merely seem to be playing this antiquish pedal steel, he seemed to be comanding an ageless force to perform without limits, producing sounds that were melodic and illusionary. Not unlike watching a snake charmer pull danger out of basket. And Mr. Vibert, with all his gadgets and gear provided a perfect accompaniment, to the point that one became the other, the other engulfed the one. The music on surface was generally up and quick and even danceable, but it was not possible to ignore the underlying chemistries being created in fantastical epic stylings between the two. To futher the magic, they were joined onstage by Pete Lovett for the final few Plug-like Drum & Bass pieces, who proceeded to allow himself to be transported into hypnotic grooves by his green bongos, and an occasional tambourine. What was different with him is that his instruments were simpler, and they seemed to come to life and posses him. And the intensity of that possesion produced sounds only barely reminiscent of bongo playing poetry readers, and more like the pedal steel and Mini-Discs and samplers which welcomed these even more foreign sounds into their midst. Now if all these things just don’t seem like they match, imagine the suprise shock that went up my spine when I realized they were playing together something that sounded suspiciously like the half-forgotten Seventies tune with the keyline “My Baby Is So K.O.”. Right, that’s how the whole show felt.
Mr. Valentino joined in with his devilish violin and charming movie star presence a few more times, and came close really to stealing the show. The crowd loved him. All too soon the whole event was done, the musicians each in their turn looking thrilled with their exhaustion. If this group were stuck in front of a rave full of chemicalised dancers they’d probably love it too, go crazy with the tranced-out 303 swathes and hyper HipHop beats swirled over with the psychedelic pedal steel far removed from the gentle twirls of Wout Steenhuis, spin into the energetic, joyful pizzicato of the electrified violin swapping melodies and passionate buzz with the steel. What a sight that would be to see, and equally the same set put before a palm-court dinner-dance for the Lounge reaction; but the Spitz on a Monday night is perfect, resonating to the booming bass and rolling swoon of 21st Century Swing. As an audience, we could have witnessed this all night long, and will no doubt look forward to their return.
-Ander Stardust-
