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Music LIVE REVIEWS
FOLK/ ROCK SIX ORGANS OF ADMITTANCE Captain’s Rest, Glasgow, Wed 8 Jun ●●●●● SLOWCORE EAGLEOWL Voodoo Rooms, Edinburgh, Wed 1 Jun ●●●●●
Support act Alec Cheer has become a kitemark for lush, DIY drone in the Scottish underground scene and, despite minor tech hitches, tonight’s delicate acoustic loops and tape reel hiss saw him hitting his stride. Next, Fabrizio Palumbo’s set is curiously over-long and far too cabaret for tonight’s stripped down nature.
Ben Chasny’s last Six Organs solo outing in Scotland was at the Instal Festival in 2004, with later tours taking a more conventional ‘rock’ band set-up and variable results in the live setting; from stupendous to dirged-out sloppiness. Tonight marks a return to being on his lonesome, with a far more melancholy set. Opening with the title track from Shelter From The Ash, there’s a playfulness in his guitar work as he effortlessly blends ‘Words for Two’ and ‘Home’ together. It proves his more delicate material sounds more alluring when not hidden behind volume and feedback, but apart from an intense rendition of ‘Spirits Abandoned’ the rest seems somewhat removed from the tantric improvisations that made his earlier work so enthralling. A skilfully executed demonstration in how to run through the numbers. (Nick Herd)
Equal levels of optimism and sadness fought at the core of this almost all-new set by elegiac Edinburgh ‘post-folk’ band Eagleowl. So quiet and deliberate was their music, so achingly hesitant about tipping over into full-blown, Arcade Fire-style folk-rock, they conjured both a feeling of regret and doomed ambition. They’re like Fleetwood Mac if the relationship splits had come before the fame. That’s not to do down the immaculate playing and songwriting skills of guitarists Bartholomew Owl and Malcolm Benzie, and double bassist Clarissa Cheong (a cellist, Hannah Shepherd and drummer, Owen Williams had also been ‘drafted’). Highlights were the whispering, mirage-like opener with the barbed lyric ‘we can’t do this any more’; the tribute to Canadian collaborator Woodpigeon in ‘Eagleowl Versus Woodpigeon’; the one with the arch ‘it’s so funny how we don’t fuck any more’ line (‘sorry about the awkward sweary bits,’ noted Cheong); and tumultuous instrumental finale which slammed into life seconds from the end. Although the benefits of an attentive crowd were clear here, there’s no disputing they’re an extraordinary band. (David Pollock)
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ROCK/ POP TOM VEK Classic Grand, Glasgow, Tue 14 Jun ●●●●● HIP HOP WU-TANG CLAN, HMV Picture House, Edin, Tue 14 Jun ●●●●●
After the critical acclaim and moderate commercial success of Tom Vek’s 2005 debut album, We Have Sound, it looked, on paper at least, like he was on to a winner. However, instead of pursuing the potentially fruitful career ahead of him, he more or less dropped off the map, retiring from public view for six years and emerging only recently to drop his somewhat unexpected follow-up, Leisure Seizure.
That said, he isn’t exactly rusty as he makes his long-awaited and welcome return to Glasgow. Confidently, Vek and his accomplished cast of multi-instrumentalists kick off in style with a flawless rendition of first-time-around hit, ‘C-C (You Set the Fire in Me)’. Blurring the lines between scratchy post-punk and dance grooves, it’s not long before the furious shape-cutting begins.
While it never dips criminally low, new material from Leisure Seizure understandably falls a little flatter than his more familiar, scrappy floor-fillers, but ‘A Chore’ and ‘A.P.O.L.O.G.Y.’ do their best to coax a buzz. The only real drag is Vek’s signature disaffected drawl which, despite striking gold with a belter of a David Byrne impression on ‘Nothing But Green Lights’, grows pretty tiresome after an hour of near tunelessness. (Ryan Drever)
Appearances nowadays by the Wu are to be met with a healthy dose of scepticism. Given that they ceased to be seen as any kind of creative identity a good while back, replaced with ‘The Wu-Tang Brand’, this appearance seems based purely on consumer demand, for a product not seen on the shelves for years. There’s no sense of collective hunger from the group, who appear heavily truncated here – no RZA, Raekwon or Inspectah Deck. The GZA and U-God are keen to drop into the shadows, leaving hyperactive show-stealers Method Man and Ghostface Killah (a vision in kilt and sporran) to dominate. That said, the fact that their debut LP, Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), provides most of the set’s material means nagging doubts are easily waylaid. Twenty years on, this shit still destroys, and ultimately is satisfactory enough to get caught up in the energies feeding the crowd as ‘C.R.E.A.M.’, ‘Bring Da Ruckus’ and ‘. . . Ain’t Nuthing to Fuck Wit’ are released for two-minute bursts – enough time for the guys to whip up a frenzy before fatigue sets in and bottles of water and towels are passed round the exhausted crew. (George Michael Taylor)
23 Jun–21 Jul 2011 THE LIST 79
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HIGHLAND FESTIVAL ROCKNESS Dores, Loch Ness, Fri 10–Sun 12 Jun ●●●●●
At first glance, the RockNess 2011 line-up looked a little schizophrenic. Acts were mainly pulled from the distant camps of Scots indie rock (Glasvegas, Paolo Nutini, Frightened Rabbit), and pioneering electronica (Jamie xx, Chemical Brothers, Groove Armada). But the ‘something for everyone’ programming proved a smart move. The crowds lapped up the singalongs of an ecstatic Frightened Rabbit as eagerly as they bounced to the bass wobbles of Magnetic Man. People were very, very happy, even if they were being pandered to (Annie Mac playing Dizzee Rascal’s ‘Bonkers’ on the main stage was hardly breaking new ground). This helps to explain the euphoria of the Aberdeen man who shouted himself hoarse in the campsite between 8 and 9 every morning, and also why The List’s positive review comes with the caveat that RockNess is not for everyone. Attracting more punters to what seemed like a much busier site in 2011, there was little respite from ‘having it’. But who needs respite – or sleep – when you’ve got the harkening call of a four-to-the-floor beat at all hours. In a field of enjoyable, but familar, acts, many of the line- up highlights appeared in the new-for-2011 Sub Club Soundsystem tent. Charming German technoheads Modeselektor (who paused the music to ‘check their emails’ at one point) and Michigan’s electropop maestro Matthew Dear played spectacular late-night sets on the Friday and Sunday respectively.
Also inventive, but less successful, the Rock’n’Roll Circus was a washout at times, testing the patience of fledgling indie bands playing to an empty space, though it did deliver the pleasingly mournful, post-Daniel Bedingfield R&B of Jamie Woon (pictured, above). The headliners did what they came to do. Kasabian stomped and postured, and Paolo held his own with just an acoustic guitar. The Chemical Brothers took things to a deep place on the Saturday night, wowing the main stage crowd with visuals and battering them with cut-up versions of classics reaching as far back as 1995’s ‘Leave Home’. It felt like old-school RockNess – heavy beats carrying some benevolent primal force out into the Scottish countryside.
The organisation was, on the whole, slick; the atmosphere friendly if intense; and the rain just about held off (Scotland’s most climatologically blessed festival?), leaving this well-executed three-dayer with a regular place in 30,000 Scottish hearts. In amongst the neon facepaint, crude slogan hoodies for sale, whooping and rolling chants of ‘here we fucking go’, it was impossible not to crack a grin. (Jonny Ensall)