Supersonic Festival 2008

I should win some kind of prize for latest review possible but here is my review of 2008's Supersonic Festival:

Supersonic Festival is an annual music festival organised by Capsule who work hard to organise and promote alternative music gigs in Birmingham. Although I'm not native to Brum I know the place well and went to Supersonic last year and so I knew what to expect (to an extent!). Supersonic is, unlike many other festivals, held in the city. Digbeth high street to be exact, and it's contained within the Custard Factory and some of the surrounding buildings. The atmosphere was fantastic and as always the majority of people there were friendly. Supersonic last year went without any organisational hiccups and this year was no different; flawless timing and organisation was evident all throughout the festival. I'm just going to give a quick summary and a rating of all the bands I saw over the 3 days that the festival lasted because I haven't time to write a proper review for each band.

Friday
Cutting Pink With Knives are apparently a joke band but seemingly aren't actually funny. When a joke band isn't funny you have to ask yourself "What is the point?". Distinct lack of any substance in musical terms and the order of the day seemed to be playing synth laden grindcore over a drum machine. The only slight redemption, and the only reason I haven't given them 1/10, was that it was their last gig so I'll never have the misfortune of seeing them again. 2/10

After a little bit of stage hopping I ended up watching Drumize who but on a brilliant show and played a great set of progressive, metal influenced, electronic music and make the most of their dual drummer format. A very pleasant surprise. 7/10

Rolo Tomassi were next to grace the outside stage and, having heard no end of hype regarding them, I was very much looking forward to seeing them live. They play what is often described as "Casio-core" and is almost a breed between a more progressive sounding version of old Dillinger Escape plan and a 10-year old making youtube videos on a very bad keyboard. Maybe I've missed the point but the rest of the band have enough talent to do without the monophonic dirge of the keyboards. I really loved their set but only found the keyboards irritating and they often seemed to dominate the sound. I must admit to having a soft spot for their vocalist *ahem*. 6/10

Next up on the outside stage was PCM. PCM are hailed as the "dark lords of Drum 'n' Bass" however they didn't really do anything for me. Their 'press play and stand there looking unimpressed' routine was enough to encourage me to leave after 15 minutes of their set. 4/10

After realising my disinterest in PCM I then moved to the Factory Club stage and witnessed the spectacle that is Bogulta. Bogulta are a Japanese two-piece band who seem intent on creating as much noise as is possible with a bass guitar and a drum kit. Their amazing set brought to mind a more frantic, disorientated (in a good way) manifestation of Death from Above 1979 and had me wanting to dance very badly however I decided to spare those around me the embarrassment. 8/10

Dalek are a band that I've been recommended time and time again and after buying an album of theirs, that I haven't subsequently got into, I decided that my final effort to give Dalek a fair hearing would be to see how they sounded live. I wasn't utterly convinced. I appreciate that they're trying to create hip-hop with a different sound and message to more mainstream hip-hop acts but, since I have no real interest in any hip-hop artists that I've heard, I have no benchmark from which to judge Dalek. I was left unconvinced. 5/10

Saturday
Cath and Phil Tyler opened up the proceedings on Saturday with a set of honest country ballads full of soul and creativity. Their marital onstage banter added a lighter edge to their otherwise melancholy show. It's the presence of acts like Cath and Phil Tyler playing at the same festival as bands like Kikuri and Gravetemple that, for me, really sets Supersonic apart from many other music festivals. 7/10

Next, on the most modest stage at Supersonic, was Alexander Tucker. Alex Tucker makes music centred around looping cello, guitar and vocal samples and was joined by a band including ,but not limited to, two men sporting bizarre wind instruments that make slightly irritating noises throughout the entire set. Alex Tucker et al were absolutely spellbinding at points but sometimes it felt like the songs were going nowhere and I felt like the music was too crowded to have the impact it could have had were the arrangement more minimal. 6/10

The Courtesy Group had my attention for about 10 minutes before a merchandise shopping spree was due and thus didn't have my full attention. Their heavily The Fall-inspired post-punk didn't do anything for me and the forced-sounding ramblings of the front man didn't take long to irritate. 4/10

The next band I witnessed were dressed like Spinal Tap and played extravagant psychedelic-rock with a hard edge. Although a clearly talented band, Guapo failed to inspire me at all because their music seemed to be entirely devoid of any soul or feeling and I grew quickly tired of their sound. If I were rating bands simply on their virtuosity then Guapo would come top, however, I felt that their talent was sorely misused. 4/10

After what seemed like hours of gear being shuffled around Joe Preston took to the stage in the form of Thrones. Consisting solely of the former-Melvins and former-Earth member who is currently doing the rounds with rock legends Harvey Milk, Thrones is truly a sight to behold. Beginning the set with a slab of dense ambient drone, Joe Preston played a destructive set of his trademark distorted, bass driven sludge songs. Although the performance was plagued by technical issues and cut short due to delays in the schedule Thrones pulled through in brilliantly humble style. 8/10

It was going to take something special to follow Thrones and a repeat of Oxbow's performance at Supersonic last year would have been pleasant enough but experiencing Oxbow as a full band is another kettle of fish altogether. The intensity that pours from the stage is abundant and front man Eugene Robinson has a formidable stage presence that left me feeling slightly uncomfortable. Robinson has often said that Oxbow's stage show originates from allowing the song's to dictate his actions and I couldn't help but think that the multitude of photographers were something missing the point of Oxbow's theatrics by snapping Eugene at his most dramatic. 9/10

Fuck Buttons were a band that I'd loved last year at Supersonic and I was excited about seeing them. They had a tough act to follow, in the form of Oxbow, and unfortunately were shown up by many of the bands playing earlier in the day. There was a distinct lack of intimacy and energy on the largest stage at Supersonic and Fuck Buttons' electronica drones didn't compete, musically, with many of the bands I'd seen on the day. 5/10

Sunday
Transitional played a frighteningly tight set of post-rock inspired industrial metal and seemed to, with little effort at all, create slabs of dense atmospheric drones while maintaining some real direction to their songs. I look forward to hearing more from this band as they oozed with potential and were one of my most pleasant surprises at Supersonic this year. 8/10

Next up were Orthodox who seem to have shot themselves in the foot somewhat by choosing "Orthodox" as their band name when their music is about as orthodox as doom gets. Despite being nothing original they played a set of nice enough songs full of riffs that paid some serious homage to Black Sabbath as well as more modern doom bands. 6/10

Earth are a band so surrounded by hype that it's difficult not to have very high expectations of them. The Drone legends who've recently taken a dive into more sparse and psychedelic territory with their most recent albums make up for the disappointment of Asva and then some. Spacey, heavily compressed guitars swirl around the largest stage at Supersonic complimented by retro sounding electric organs, trombone and minimal drums. Their set comprised mainly of tracks of The Bees Made Honey in the Lion's Skull and HEX but Earth could have been playing anything and it would have sounded excellent. You get the impression that they are a band that are back for good and will overshadow anything that they had previously made in any other incarnation. 9/10

I headed over to the Outside Stage to witness the last 30 uninspiring minutes of Red Sparowes performance. Behind the long pretentious song titles and over-enthusiastic fanboys Red Sparowes are really just a post-rock band. The songs sound uninspired and formulaic and there seems to be little cohesion between sections of songs, just jumping from one riff to another. They are almost saved by a solid bass player that is also proficient at slide guitar but that and the excellent visuals aren't quite enough to make them stand out. 4/10

Kikuri are really indescribable so I'm not even going to try. It was very loud and very good and until about a week ago I thought that Keiji Heino was a woman but apparently he's male. Masami Akita and Keiji Heino would probably be something to behold on their own but together it's amazing, I had an urge to dance and lie down at the same time. 9/10

Although I'm still unsure of the membership of Gravetemple (it contains Sunn O))) members, a drummer and others) I am sure of the intensity of their music. The performance was riven with a dark atmosphere that even the high velocity, chaotic, black-metal inspired drumming failed to shatter. Gravetemple created a haunting wall of sound that could be felt aswell as heard, eerie vocals echoed around the main stage at Briminghams Custard Factory and, for me, Supersonic Festival came to a close. 10/10

Capguns

Night
Capguns are one of a kind. Not only because of their phenomenal music but also because they are from North Wales and actually good at something. I don't mean to sound cruel but google "famous North Walians" and it'll prove my point. After browsing for 5 minutes the most noteworthy candidate for status as the most famous North Walian ever to exist appeared to be a footballer for Wrexham Football Club. The reason for this void of talent is that Sheep, in North Wales, out-number people 10 to 1 and the human population is comparable to that of Sheffield.

These factors, irrelevant though they may be, make it all the more amazing that North Wales has produced such an amazing band who appear to have honed their technique so beautifully and gained some serious kudos on the nationwide music scene. Another thing that never ceases to amaze me is how well-versed the band are in a live situation; after witnessing them live twice now, I've been left in awe after their performance. The reason for this review is that I've recently been given a copy of Capguns forthcoming studio offering, Night, and I've been blown away by its quality.

The feel is of a band that is totally comfortable with their sound and have set out to create a selection of great songs that give you a cross-section of themselves in order to expose you to a little bit of each element of their sound. If I were asked to compare them to any other bands I would probably put them somewhere between atmospheric-metal veterans ISIS and instrumental post-rock band Explosions in the Sky. Layers of atmospheric, delay ridden guitar blend with chord based bass playing to create a mood of gentle anaesthesia only to have it riven by crushing, metal-tinged, riffs of mammoth proportions. Closer Atlas (Flow) provides a great end to a really impressive EP and displays the kind of thing that Capguns excel at.

I've heard plenty of bands that employ a similar style to Capguns but this band seem to pull it off with spectacular aplomb. There is a future in music for Capguns, I'm sure of it. 8/10

Nadja

Desire in Uneasiness
The new studio effort from American Drone/Doom /Shoegaze duo "Nadja" clocks in at 62 minutes and isn't a moment too long. Not much has changed in the core Nadja sound and I'd struggle to pick out one thing that really sets this CD apart from anything else that they've recorded but it is by far their best work. I can't think of any way to describe the improvement other than that they've "got better" in much the same way, although in a totally different musical style, as At the Drive-in "got better" between In/Casino/Out and Relationship of Command. Desire in Uneasiness is a name that is totally detached from the sound of the album; the overall feel is one of comfort and I feel like Nadja are finally getting to terms with their sound and beginning to concentrate more on individual songs.

I first heard Nadja about a year ago and, although I fell in love with their sound, I think that most of the time that I've spent listening to them has been used thinking about what potential, to write a truly breathtaking album, they have; with Desire in Uneasiness they haven't quite made that album but they are certainly heading in the right direction. Everything about the album, the sweeping synths, the lush, rich production and the heavy drones, screams "progression" to me. The production is a lot less dense than most previous Nadja albums and maintains the insistent heaviness of their sound while giving the individual pieces some space to breathe. The inclusion of some quiet songs, the sublime "Affective Fields" for example, helps put the heaviness of the other pieces in context and is a very welcome addition to the album. My one criticism is that in achieving a "loose" sound for the album they seem to have gone a bit far at points with some drum parts being slightly out of time; this can only improve in the future and if this dynamic duo continues to improve at the rate they are doing we will be in for something special with the next Nadja studio album.

Throughout the entire album there is something refreshingly new about the music that I can't quite pin down but it's in the nature of Nadja that they're difficult to pin down. 7.5/10

Buy it here

Efterklang/Our Broken Garden/Big Eyes Family Players

Corporation, Sheffield, 28-03-08

I arrived about 5 minutes after Big Eyes Family Players had started playing and my immediate reaction was that they were a pleasant enough support band but not a lot beyond that. They clearly had a heavy folk influence and created a very dynamic and mellow sound for the most part although the last song descended into a chaotic jam with an annoyingly squeaky recorder. My main criticism is that they didn't utilise their instruments to a great enough extent and it seemed that when they wanted a different sound they simply picked up a different instrument instead of playing their instruments in a different way. 6/10

Our Broken Garden is the name that Anna Brønsted of Efterklang uses to perform solo material. Anna created piano and vocal loops live and this added a bit more to the standard singer-songwriter at a piano formula. She delivered a beautiful but very brief set and I'd have loved to hear much more than three songs. 8/10

Bearing in mind that I'd only heard one Efterklang song before they took to the stage I had no real idea of what to expect. The band was a 7-piece for this gig and I get the impression that the live instrumentation is quite prone to changing. The man who seemed to take the lead as far as crowd interaction engaged with the crowd with some clapping and on-stage banter and was very charismatic. The music was fantastic, a sort of hybrid between Four Tet, A Silver Mt. Zion and Sigur Ros, with passages ranging from sublime to danceable. I got an overall feeling that the band were 100% in control of their live performance, sound and all, and they were probably one of the most comfortable live bands I've seen. Efterklang seem to thrive in a live environment and are packed with energy, definitely one of my top-tips as far as live performance is concerned. 8/10

ISIS

Holy Tears

To my knowledge this is the first single released by ISIS in their 11 year long career so I was somewhat excited when I heard news of it but a question that came into my head after the immediate excitement was "why?". I appreciate that it may have been used as a way to release the video for "Holy Tears" in a formal way but it still seems like an unnecessary excursion for ISIS. Anyway, out of curiosity I bought the single so onto the content.

The musical element of the CD is fairly weak, it contains the album version of "Holy Tears", the Melvins/Lustmord remix of "Not in Rivers, But in Drops" and a live version of Holy Tears featuring Justin Chancellor from Tool on bass. The remix of "Not in Rivers, But in Drops" is fairly boring and is lacking the emotion of the original track; in my opinion it's not even worth the 5 and a half minutes I spent listening to it. This CD is very nearly saved from being a flop by the live version of Holy Tears but still it isn't quite good enough to counteract the dirge of the previous track. It's at this point that I watched the video for "Holy Tears" and I really didn't know what to think. I loved the video up until the final sequence which I found repulsive; it depicts a man's face coming into contact with a pavement after jumping off a sky-scraper, in slow motion. I fail to see the appeal of this and couldn't watch the video at points.



Even though I'm a big ISIS fan I fail to see the point of this CD single and if the single for "Not in Rivers, But in Drops" is released then I hope it is slightly better and more innovative than this. [5]

Portishead

Third

Portishead haven't released any studio material for over a decade. That alone sets the bar very high, the fact that both their previous full length-studio releases are among the best albums of the 1990's means that it would be very difficult for Portishead to create something which, for me, lives up to the quality and legend their previous releases.

After listening to Third lots I'm still not sure whether or not they've achieved that almost unattainable goal but that doesn't seem to matter any more. Beth Gibbons, Adrian Utley and Geoff Barrow have branched out drastically from their previous trip-hop orientated sound into much edgier territory. Tracks such as We Carry On and Machine Gun bear surprising similarities to The Fragile-era Nine Inch Nails songs, with eerie but minimal tracking, droning bass lines, dissonant guitar and a prevailing sense of suspense, whereas The Rip and Deep Water expose a more folk orientated, guitar-centric side to Portishead that I wasn't aware even existed. Plastic sounds like it could have been taken straight from the sessions for 1997's self-titled album and is seamlessly executed. Not one element of the sound on the album feels at all out of place, everything blends perfectly into the lo-fi production of the album.

Portishead have managed to mature significantly during their almost decade long hiatus and have created an album that seems a natural development from Dummy and Portishead. Despite the departure from their previous sound, it is unmistakably Portishead and for that I am glad. [8]

Meshuggah

obZen

Despite the crap album artwork, the latest effort of Swedish metal titans Meshuggah is a masterpiece. Followers of the band will know that the last the last 3 trips into the studio for Meshuggah (I, Catch 33 and Re-Nothing) have been experiments in harnessing the intensity that captivates their music, and is so evident on earlier albums such as Chaosphere, into a new, often more progressive, style. obZen feels like a summary of almost everything that Meshuggah have ever set to record (with the welcome exception of Contradictions Collapse) and there is no better summary they could provide than this.

Soul permeates through the initially mechanical production and execution of obZen and this helps to make it the easiest Meshuggah album to listen to. Catch 33 was mechanical and impersonal in it's very nature and it's a warming experience to hear a bit of the personality of Meshuggah creeping through the songs, the tongue in cheek hi-hat count-ins that litter opening track Combustion are a prime example of this. Pineal Gland Optics is Meshuggah at their most groove-ridden and it's difficult to suppress the feeling that everything is falling to pieces around you through the duration of the track. It's nearing the epic closer, Dancers to a Discordant System, and I need to concentrate on it so I'll finish this review now.

The presence of Meshuggah's trademark polyrhythmic groove is not lacking from the 9 tracks that make up obZen but it's mixed in with the slowly picked, clean, dissonant guitar playing that found it's medium in Mind's Mirrors on Catch 33. The furious, robotic vocals of Jens compliment the precise and technical nature of obZen to make it one of the best Meshuggah albums to date. [9]

Buy it here - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Obzen-Meshuggah/dp/B0012E6R3M/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1204889491&sr=1-1

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

DIG, LAZARUS, DIG!!!

When I heard that Nick Cave described the new Bad Seeds album would "sound like Grinderman" my heart sank somewhat. I've been an avid Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds fan since I was introduced to No More Shall We Part and when I hear news of anything new by Nick Cave I long for it to have the same melancholy atmosphere that is present on No More Shall We Part.

Whenever I actually hear any new Nick Cave material I realise that my wish for homogeneity is naive and I proceed to devour whatever he releases with enthusiasm. Anyway, to the music, there's a tongue in cheek lyrical (and musical) theme present throughout the entirety of DIG, LAZARUS, DIG!!! that is somewhat akin to the mood of excitement that is the lifeblood of The Abattoir Blues (Cave's previous release with The Bad Seeds). Despite the absence of Blixa Bargeld, the guitar playing is typical driven by it's use of dissonance, noise and feedback but tasteful in the quieter, more melancholy, tracks such as Hold on to Yourself.


















Cave's erratic vocal style perfectly fits the frustration and confusion expressed by the main character (affectionately dubbed "Larry" by Cave) after his impromptu resurrection from the dead. Lazarus, fresh with delirium, commences a debauched tour of the USA while Cave documents his antics and moral dilemmas. One has the feeling that through this record Nick Cave is exorcising his self confessed trauma in relation to the story of Lazarus of Bethany and this is particularly evident in the title track as Cave wails "he never asked to be raised from the tomb, nobody actually asked him to forsake his dream". Whatever Cave's motives for creating this album he's certainly created a piece of music that is light-hearted, complex in the issues it tackles and brilliant. In the run up to the Bad Seeds album (whenever that may be) I'll be sure not to expect another No More Shall We Part and then maybe, if there is one, it'll be a pleasant surprise. [8]

Buy it here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dig-Lazarus-Nick-Cave-Seeds/dp/B000ZN258M/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1204887869&sr=8-2