Oxbow / Nordra (live at Studio 9294)

London
5 September 2023

You know, I really slept on Oxbow. For, like, literally decades.

I remember reading about them a lot in the music press (remember that?), and the focus was always on Eugene Robinson‘s penchant for fighting unruly audience members. I therefore filed them away in the “probably mental live” folder, but assumed that since nobody was talking about their actual music their music wasn’t actually all that interesting. Even when a friend told me in the early 2000s that “you’d love them, imagine The Birthday Party with a wrestler” I didn’t take the hint.

To be fair, it’s far easier now to check out a band on a recommendation than it was back then, and it was only when, having decided I really couldn’t face listening to Neurosis anymore, and I asked people what would fill that gap in my listening and have the same level of soul-baring intensity, and the same friend very patiently said, “for fuck’s sake. Oxbow”. And it turned out he was right.

And then, with impeccable timing, they released a new album, Love’s Holiday, for the first time in six years, and it was ace, and THEN it turned out they were playing a half-hour bus ride from my house. So that was a total no-brainer.

Which brings me to a hot Tuesday night in Hackney Wick, to finally see Oxbow playing at Studio 9294. First up, though, it’s Nordra, the solo project from Monika Khot of Zen Mother. The little I’ve heard of Nordra’s recorded output was mainly kind of doomy dark ambient stuff, which was a perfect listen at home, but I’m not sure if I’ll dig it live. Solo electronic acts can go one of two ways — simply put, boring or awesome.

Fortunately Nordra falls into the latter category, with harmonic vocal and guitar loops combining with machine soundscapes to create something pretty unquantifiable. But quantifying it’s literally the reason I’m here, so I’ll give it a go. Supremely eclectic, her set dabbles with multiple genres, from Throbbing Gristle-style industrial to black and doom metal, without ever quite fully becoming any of them.

It’s music that’s full of surprises, and she never falls into the trap of just finding a nice loop or drone and then just twiddling her thumbs. She’s constantly working — picking out a guitar riff, laying down a vocal harmony or micromanaging the machinery. Remarkable.

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.

He’s already doffing his kecks halfway through the first track, and by the end is greeting us in a leather waistcoat and pants. And tbh, you can’t really blame him. It’s hot as balls in here. And the beer ain’t cheap! And that voice is 100 percent present and correct, shrieking, yelling and earthily crooning its way through a set that, obviously, leans very heavily on Love’s Holiday.

I was wondering how the more orchestrated arrangements of their more recent stuff would play out live, and it’s actually pretty simple — they play out like they’re being played by an excellent hardcore band who have some slower and more complex numbers, guitarist and composer Niko Wenner switching to piano for (I think) “All Gone”, and otherwise keeping control of the plane while Eugene’s out there dancing on the wing.

In short, they’re amazing. And they definitely deliver on the soul-baring intensity. By the time they leave us with a fake encore (a “you know we’re coming back, so there’s no point in us leaving” kinda deal) followed by a real one, I’m cursing myself yet again for having missed several decades of their shows.
Which is not a mistake I intend to make again.

-Words: Justin Farrington-
-Pictures: Dave Pettit-