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Music
EVERYTHING EVERYTHING Although they haven’t yet caught on in the way the pundits behind the BBC’s ‘Sound of 2010’ poll might have expected at the turn of the year, last month’s Top 20 debut album Man Alive aside, English quartet Everything Everything – vocalist Jonathan Higgs, a multi- instrumentalist alongside Jeremy Pritchard and Alex Robertshaw, and drummer Michael Spearman – are quietly hewing a new grammar in pop music.
That’s a bold claim for a band hardly anyone has heard of. How so? Musically they may not be particularly boundary breaking, with a light-touch, electro-indie sound that’s heavy on the angular forays. They’re like a weirder version of Cut Copy or, for those who like their musical comparisons as opposite as possible without threatening to create a black hole, like the Pet Shop Boys covering Shellac. Sort of. It’s good for the dancefloor, but even better for good old-fashioned listening to. So what’s so special about them? Higgs’ punkily angelic vocals and lyrics are once listened, never forgotten, if you can get over the band’s startling after-the-fact similarity to Glasgow’s much missed Findo Gask. ‘Photoshop Handsome’ makes a virtue of vaguely meaningful junk (‘I will boost my attention span / soon my clock will have a minute hand’), but the chorus of ‘Suffragette Suffragette’ is a mini masterpiece of intentionally misheard ‘did he really say that?’ lyricism. Is it ‘you’re gonna sit on the fence when I’m gone?’ or ‘who’s gonna sit on your face when I’m gone?’ Who knows? It gets the attention, though. (David Pollock) ■ King Tut’s, Glasgow, Sat 2 Oct.
LIVE REVIEWS
DIY SHOWCASE CRY PARROT COMPILATION LAUNCH Stereo, Glasgow, Sun 5 Sep ●●●●● COUNTRY ROCK OLD CROW MEDICINE SHOW O2 ABC, Glasgow, Sun 12 Sep ●●●●●
Glasgow promoters Cry Parrot’s eclectic remit was in full effect at the launch of their third compilation (free to download from winningspermparty.com). Openers Small Scale Collisions used laptops, a guitar and the focus of a couple of NASA technicians to successfully evoke all the clicks, whirrs and throbbing white noise of a real-time space shuttle launch. Galoshins came equipped to be a
much more interesting band than they turned out to be, but unfortunately their underwritten songs weren’t well- served by the polished sound. It was difficult to tell if Blue Sabbath Black Fiji (below) were in full control of the sonic apocalypse they unleashed, such was their frenetic approach to their array of pedals, drum machines and mixers, but they seemed as delighted as the crowd with the sound produced. It was the aural equivalent of the climax of Akira and just as impressive. Streets of Rage provided a suitably thrilling climax, thrashing through their brittle, minimalist hardcore at a speed and intensity that showed no regard for the limitations of the human body. (Sean Welsh)
The close collaborative ties between the Old Crow Medicine Show and their tour support The Dave Rawlings Machine mean that a fan of one is usually a fan of the other, especially when Rawlings’ long-term musical partner Gillian Welch is drawn into the equation. The last time Welch performed in Glasgow, her support was the OCMS, so it’s more or less the other way around this time. On that night, like this one, everybody pitched in wherever required. Rawlings’ set sped by almost too
quickly, the highlight being a gut- wrenching ‘Ruby’, from last year’s A Friend of a Friend album. Inviting Welch to do a song, she obliges with ‘Look at Miss Ohio’, from 2003’s Soul Journey. Half of OCMS oil the wheels of the Dave Rawlings Machine, so by the time they play everything feels reassuringly familiar. Opening with a rousing old sea-shanty ‘The Hog-eyed Man’, they pick up the pace with ‘Hard To Love’. Stirring bluegrass versions of ‘Poor Man’ and ‘Caroline’ demonstrate their versatility, from old- time country to soulful bluegrass. Above all, they’re just a great rock ‘n’ roll band. (Rachel Devine)
KNIFE SOLO PROJECT FEVER RAY O2 ABC, Glasgow, Mon 6 Sep ●●●●●
The night begins in hushed anticipation of the arrival of enigmatic Swedish artist, Fever Ray – aka The Knife’s Karin Dreijer-Andersson – making her debut Scottish live appearance. Punctuated by the hiss of smoke machines working overtime, the pulsating drones of ‘If I Had A Heart’ slowly frame her subtle entrance, taking to a stage enveloped in darkness alongside ghoulishly costumed bandmates. Decked out in outlandish cone-
headed stage-gear, Dreijer-Andersson steers us through an incredibly well- honed and entrancing live show, featuring a barrage of flickering lamps, onstage theatrics and blankets of lasers. A show in every sense of the word, all aspects link together perfectly, creating starting visual accompaniment to some equally mesmerizing music. It would be hard to fault anything, although ‘When I Grow Up’ garners a particularly intense response tonight, and, utilising her open relationship with pitch- changing vocal effects, the darker tones of ‘Dry and Dusty’ and ‘Concrete Walls’ are amplified. Surely just about the creepiest slow dance the ABC has ever seen. (Ryan Drever)
EXPERIMENTAL IMPROV GLASGOW IMPROVISERS ORCHESTRA City Halls Recital Room, Glasgow, Wed 8 Sep ●●●●● Large-ensemble improvisation can be a tentative affair, fidgety rather than full-blooded, but GIO’s performance, the first in the Soundlab series of experimental concerts, was a fitting tribute to the ‘joyful and life-enhancing sound’ of great British jazz trumpeter Harry Beckett, who died in July. With puckish glee, George Burt handed the audience copies of the score to his ‘Improvcerto One for Harry Beckett’: a Post-It note containing simple diagrams directing the performance. Allowing members of the orchestra to step up and conduct was inspired, with cellist Peter Nicholson directing staccato bursts of noise with a Miles Davis style karate chop, and saxophonist Raymond MacDonald taking things right down to highlight the subtle fizz and throb of Zhang Lin’s electronics against delicate violin and flute. In a nod to Beckett’s Caribbean background, drummer Stuart Brown introduced carnival rhythms to his solo, while his hearty Buddy Rich style tub-thumping directed the orchestra towards a squalling climax, combining their jazz, classical and experimental sides into an energetic whole. (Stewart Smith)
23 Sep–7 Oct 2010 THE LIST 73