list.co.uk/music
Music LIVE REVIEWS
D R A W D O O W X E L A
: O T O H P
NEW MUSIC WEEKEND CRY PARROT NEW YEAR FEST Nice & Sleazy, Glasgow, Fri 13 Jan ●●●●●
Not so much a ‘hot tips for 2012’ shindig as a snapshot of Scotland’s restless underground, the second night of Cry Parrot’s new bands residency is dominated by electronica, but there’s room for polyrhythmic guitar’n’drum jams too. Cru Servers take cues from the cyborg beats and noise of Fuck Buttons and Black Dice, their machines coughing up corrosive filth over drum pads and chiming post-rock melodies. Not quite the finished article, they’re still full of wit and oddball ideas. The Modern Institute are slicker, with echo-laden soundbites over sharp beats and synths. It’s slightly lacking in dynamics, with potential earworms left half-buried, suggesting this trio need to embrace their inner disco tarts. Undisputed band of the night are Sacred Paws (pictured), comprising Eilidh of Golden Grrls and Skeleton Bob on drums, and Rachel from Electrelane affiliates, Trash Kit on guitar. Raw Soweto high-life riffs and rolling Afrobeat grooves are filtered through post-punk sass and ramshackle K Records charm. It’s an utterly joyous sound, and judging by the dancing and smiling , Glasgow has a new favourite band. (Stewart Smith)
MODERN COMPOSITION A WINGED VICTORY FOR THE SULLEN Oran Mor, Glasgow, Sun 15 Jan ●●●●●
The collaboration of Stars of the Lid’s Adam Wiltzie and Devics’ Dustin O’Halloran might sound like a dream ticket for devotees of string-abetted US independent music, but this live performance was no occasion for ego or for taking individual bows. Before an all-seated audience, minimal classical configurations from the pair on keyboards and electric guitar and their centre-stage, inward-facing trio of violinists and cellist was the order of the evening, a smooth and relaxing balm which built a truly hypnotic edge upon its single-minded dedication to droning chords and masterfully sustained string notes.
In the semi-darkness the effect of truly irritating song titles like ‘We Played Some Open Chords and Rejoiced, For the Earth Had Circled the Sun Yet Another Year’ was negated, leaving only this wonderful music. Cemented by reverberation which shivered through the floorboards and the group’s unwavering commitment to the form they’ve created for themselves, the effect was such that the finale after little more than an hour felt very much like a rude awakening. (Paul Little)
COUNTRY ZOE MUTH The Arches, Glasgow, Sat 21 Jan ●●●●
Abundant comparisons with country greats have been made – Iris DeMent, Emmylou Harris, Gillian Welch – but Zoe Muth is a singer-songwriter with unique talents. The voice is strong, the tunes engaging and the lyrics – bleak but compelling contemporary narratives, insightful. Mercifully they eschew most country music tropes, although the young Seattleite does have a tendency towards the maudlin. Her first two albums were deservedly well
received and let her to pack in the schoolteacher day job in favour of schlepping around the globe with her excellent band, The Lost High Rollers. Live, however, there is a sense that Muth is a work in progress, albeit a potentially very special one. Glasgow is first stop of her UK tour, and, while it could just be jetlag, it feels a little flat and safe at times. She opens with the decidedly downbeat ‘Starlight Hotel’, but it’s still oddly subdued. ‘The Running Kind’, so fragile and heartbreaking on record, here lacks a certain intensity. Still, the musicianship is impeccable. The Carter Family’s ‘My Dixie Darling’ is a well-judged change of pace and the Lucinda Williams-esque ‘You Only Believe Me When I’m Lying’ a highlight. (Rachel Devine)
LIVE HORROR SCORE STEVEN SEVERIN – VAMPYR Cameo Cinema, Edinburgh, Thu 12 Jan ●●●●●
The man with the flowing white hair walks towards a small table and chair beside the Cameo’s big screen. Sporting a long black coat and carrying a glass of red wine, he looks as if he’s stepped in from another, altogether darker age of shadows and light. Especially when juxtaposed against the shiny silver Macbook which he seats himself before. Such an anachronistic clash may be accidental, but it’s the perfect introduction to former Siouxsie and the Banshees bass player Steven Severin’s contemporary live score for Vampyr, Carl Theodor Dreyer’s 1932 study in parasitic possession. Severin’s brooding synth shards ooze in and out,
providing a delicious counterpoint to Dreyer’s consciously over-egged visual signifiers, which bridge Victorian melodrama and high-end expressionism. Ushered in by bells, and even some dance-band jauntiness, Severin’s latest score in his Music for Silents series following treatments of works by Germaine Dulac and Jean Cocteau lends even more menace than Wolfgang Zeller’s original in an intensely brooding and at times sepulchral- sounding performance. (Neil Cooper)
2 Feb–1 Mar 2012 THE LIST 85
SHOEGAZE TRAILER TRASH TRACYS Captain’s Rest, Glasgow, Sun 15 Jan ●●●●●
Not, as you might have expected from the name, a clan of bad-mouthin’, whisky-swillin’ Midwestern girls battering badly-tuned guitars and trying to resurrect the lost souls of L7 or The Distillers, Trailer Trash Tracys are instead three guys and a girl from London whose revivalist brand of effects- laden shoegaze fog is heavy on the exquisite melodrama. It deserved more than the modest crowd taking advantage of free entry on a Sunday night, although at least in the Captain’s Rest’s darkened basement it had a venue to match the murky atmosphere the band create. Guitarist Jimmy-Lee, bassist Adam J and
drummer Dayo are as cagey and equivocal as their only half-revealed names imply, keeping their heads down and making a beautiful noise with all the unassuming grace of technicians going about their business. Instead, singer Susanne Aztoria is the attention magnet, a role she just about carries off. Demure in a red woollen hat with a few wisps of blonde fringe visible beneath the brim, her icy thousand-yard stare is the key element of a performance which is undemonstrative and possibly a little shy. That suits the music, though, a wispy squall that’s vampishly mature and the sound of not being asked to dance at your school disco all at once.
There’s something about seeing and hearing these songs performed live which subtracts from the dream-like abstraction of their recorded versions, yet Aztoria’s voice is still pleasingly otherworldly on key tracks like ‘You Wish You Were Red’ and ‘Candy Girl’, each coming in like ‘Wicked Game’ and going out as though they’ve been fed through Slowdive’s amps and effects pedals. There’s also a certain uniformity of style at play, but new textures find their way in – the constant noodling guitar signature of ‘Engelhardt’s Arizona’, for example, or the ever- present snap of a drum machine offset against the waves of analogue sound.
As ‘Turkish Heights’ bleeds from a weird end of
the night waltz into an accelerating clash of cymbals and guitars, the impression is that this isn’t the kind of band who will grab an audience by the throat and demand their undivided attention. Rather they’re the kind which seeps into your heart through continued exposure to their often electrifying recorded music (see their recent debut album Ester on Domino subsidiary Double Six) and which establishes a live connection through warm familiarity as much as anything else. (David Pollock)