ELECTRO ROCK THE MAGNIFICENTS Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh, Fri 13 Jul
The Magnificents were always ahead of the game. Formed seven years ago at Edinburgh Art College, the eccentric but brilliant foursome set about assaulting audiences with a relentless, high-octane blend of post- punk and new wave, at a time when no one else was making a racket like it.
Now, with the charts full of inferior new new wavers, the time is surely right for The Magnificents’, well, magnificent second album, Year of Explorers. Sounding like a demented, booze-addled cousin of Interpol or The Rapture, Year of Explorers could catapult the band into the big league, but its making was not without trouble.
‘It was a fucking nightmare,’ says guitarist Drew
McFadyen. ‘We had all sorts of problems with producers. It was frustrating; we were stuck for months when we couldn’t do anything, I felt like boiling my head. It should be called Two and a Half Years of Explorers. But we got there in the end and it was definitely worth it.’
It was indeed. Sharing the manic energy of the band’s eponymous album and early EPs, it nevertheless sees them expanding their sound to create a more diverse musical springboard to launch themselves from. It sounds like a more considered process than before?
‘I don’t know about considered,’ laughs McFadyen. ‘We just make it up as we go along, really. It is diverse, though. We’re four very different people with different tastes in music, so the direction we go in at any point just depends on who’s most in the mood for fighting at the time.’ (Doug Johnstone)
HARDCORE CONVERGE Classic Grand, Glasgow, Fri 6 Jul
While metal is ORJOyIng something of a renaissance as Mastodon and Tool's esoteric leanings catch the mainstream's attention, there's yet to be a group to prove that hardcore is a bona fide art form. A group to attest hardcore is more than power chords and basement shows.
Step forward Converge. A band for whom ‘groundbreaking' doesn‘t even begin to cover it. Over a decade and a half the Boston quartet have become the flag bearers for hardcore as art. Here is a group, like spiritual pals Neurosis. whose desire to innovate is as much to do with experimentation as it IS with confirming their very essence.
When 2001's modern-day ClaSSIC Jane Doe — a harrowmg album that dealt with the collapse of vocalist Jacob Bannon's five-year relationship — made them underground champions. they shrugged off expectations with 2004‘s You Fail Me. an album that jettisoned the blistering metal of its predecessor in fav0ur of OOTSA-style grooves. apocalyptic folk and neise rOCk.
Current album, No Heroes combines the two. as go-for-the- jugular rage meets a complex sonic whole. Best epitomised by the track. ‘Grim Heart/Black Rose'. which features a guest vocal from Jonah Jenkins of Only Living Witness: a slow. neo- blues rift grows into a doom metal ballad. culminating in the most almighty finale nine minutes later as the group Wig-out in a stomping emotional catharSis. Sure. it's emotional hardcore but it's a world away from My Chemical Romance.
All of which confirms their status alongside kindred spirits Neurosis. Godflesh and Shellac: innovators that have come to Symbolise a genre while forever re-defining it. In other werds. true artists. (Andrew Borthwick)
JAZZ
ELASTIC AXIS
Satchmo's, Dundee, Thu 5 Jul; The Jazz Bar, Edinburgh, Fri 6 Jul
Elastic Axis got together last year in Dublin. but the five members of the band are scattered far and wide. The core of the group are the three Roth brothers. Alex (guitar), Nick (saxes) and Simon (bass). with Colm O'Hara on trombone and Peter Erdei on bass. They will make their debut in Scotland in a double bill with the Edinburgh-based Joe Acheson Ouartet (Currently working on their debut album).
‘Tim Lane. one of the two drummers in Joe‘s band, is a good friend of ours.‘ Alex Roth explained. 'and we have done a bit of playing together in the past. but this Will be the first time we have done a double bill. I haven't seen Joe's band live yet. so that will be quite exciting.‘
Elastic Axis came about though the temporary presence of all five players in Dublin. but only Nick Roth and Colm O'Hara live there. The others are in Devon, York and Hungary. making regular rehearsal a bit of a non-starter. They will get together ahead of these dates. however. and Alex made some suggestions on what to expect.
‘It's mostly original music. and I've also arranged stuff ranging from Radiohead to Messiaen. There is also a Balkan and Klezmer influence. and that all feeds into the music. We are working on different ways of using improvisation within structures — I'm interested in the kinds of forms you can set up. and then how yOu can improvise within them.‘ I (Kenny Mathieson)
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