MUSIC | Reviews
TECHNO & ACID HOUSE ORBITAL Picture House, Edinburgh, Sun 2 Dec ●●●●●
Those arriving at the venue minutes after the Hartnoll brothers Paul and Phil have gone onstage will note reverberations ringing off the buildings around them, the sound of a whispered warehouse rave up an alley or the distant thump of a bass drum in the air. It may have been barely audible, but there was a sense that the Picture House could no longer contain what had been unleashed inside, that an otherwise quiet Sunday night was being broken down by a party of old school dimensions.
Having reformed in 2009 following a five-year hiatus and just released new album Wonky – their eighth, and first since 2004’s Blue Album – Orbital are an odd proposition to put in context. Having burst into the public consciousness with an unexpected but rapturously received 1994 headline set at Glastonbury, their split a decade later was potentially indicative that their time was up; the era of acid house and ambient techno had been confined to the nostalgia files even as dubstep, bass and EDM were coming over the hill.
Yet, where the styles they played ultimately mutated rather than died out, it seems they’ve maintained their place and aesthetic precisely by refusing to give up on what they were good at. So this set could almost have been lifted straight from Glasto in the mid-90s, with the big budget and high intensity nature of the surrounding stage show – strobes, lasers, multiple screens that hang in the darkness – a stark contrast to the shadowy anonymity of the two men guiding it all.
The set, as Orbital’s career has done,
occasionally wandered into areas which were resolutely of their time, the odd burst of drum’n’bass here or there for example. Yet more often than not there was a certain timeless quality to the simple combination of crunching bass breakdowns and hissing acid rhythms, even when they were inserting such wilfully retro flourishes as a burst of The Carpenters’ ‘Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft’ or their own well-tested cover of the Dr Who theme. For a concert hall show it maintained the vigour and volume of a warehouse rave, and where the highlights emerged – the delicate chill-out of ‘Belfast’ or the definitive keyboard- stabbing house of ‘Chime’, for two – crowd and musicians alike shared and recreated some glorious, ageless moments together. (Paul Little)
108 THE LIST 13 Dec 2012–24 Jan 2013
PUNK ICEAGE The Third Door, Edinburgh, Sat 24 Nov ●●●●● HIP HOP BIG SEAN The Arches, Glasgow, Thu 29 Nov ●●●●●
‘Can we borrow the support bands’ guitars?’ asks vocalist Elias Ronnenfelt with a sleepy-eyed mix of boredom and self-belief that expects no answer other than action. Three songs in, and the Danish neo-hardcore quartet’s guitars are fucked, a mess of snapped-string fury that’s the only thing that’s made them pause for breath tonight. Iceage’s 2011 debut, New Brigade, announced an outburst of teen frustration; both a throwback to a million spirit-of-’76 one chord wonders and an urgent rebirth of the same crash-and-burn attitude. (New Brigade’s follow-up on Matador is imminent.) Iceage take punk’s nihilistic schtick and breathe
life into back-to-basics deconstructed clatter. Ronnenfelt is a pretty-boy pin-up in denial, recalling a young, strung-out Nick Cave if he’d been cast in Glee and was fronting a Frankenstein’s monster alliance of The Birthday Party, Cramps and Strokes. After 27 blistering, breathtaking minutes – it’s over. Forget pork pie hatted punk pretenders. In their eyes, at least, Iceage are for real. Catch them before self-destruction or showbiz makes them irrelevant. (Neil Cooper) ■ For a longer version, see list.co.uk
If the scene in the ladies is anything to go by, you'd think you were backstage before a disco-dance competition. Fake-tanned skin contradicts the freezing night, with Big Sean even tweeting about the cold before his debut Scottish appearance. The Detroit-rhymer, signed to Kanye West’s label,
gets through a number of raps from his mixtapes and debut album, Finally Famous, during his hour- long set. While solo songs ‘Guap’ and ‘I Do It’ are popular with the young Glasgow crowd, it's his collaboration tracks ‘My Last’, ‘Ass’ and ‘Mercy’ that really hype them up. The 23-year-old's brazen lyrics, swagged-out gold chains and cheeky grin go down well with the dolled-up Glasgow girls, especially when he takes his top off and shouts out to all the ‘pretty ladies’. Even supported by visuals and DJ Mo Beatz Big Sean lacks something. Maybe this is the reason why his most successful releases have featured Justin Bieber, Nikki Minaj and Chris Brown. Things end on a high when the rapper drops the Cruel Summer banger ‘Clique’. It then becomes apparent what is missing: Kanye and Jay- Z. (Lauren Gelling)
INDIE FOLK MUMFORD & SONS SECC, Glasgow, Wed 5 Dec ●●●●● POST PUNK MISSION OF BURMA Mono, Glasgow, Wed 5 Dec ●●●●●
Early this December T in the Park announced The Killers, Rihanna, Azealia Banks and these guys for next year’s festival, heaping a great deal of expectation on the 20th anniversary shindig. When indie-folk outfit Mumford & Sons were confirmed as headliners, it was met with some bewilderment. It was bound to spark debate amongst the faithful who make the annual Balado pilgrimage – especially the detractors who consider them a bit MOR; even secondhand, given the recent boom in indie folk. Despite their meteoric rise following album two, Babel, (it hit No 1 in the US and UK, and led to them playing the Grammys with Bob Dylan), it begs the question – can Marcus and co hold their own on the main stage? Tonight’s sold-out show proves more than enough to put the doubting masses at ease. ‘I Will Wait’ and ‘The Cave’ captivate with anthemic singalong choruses and ‘Little Lion Man’ from debut LP Sigh No More whips the crowd into a frenzy. In trademark waistcoasts and cheesecloth, Mumford & Sons put a contemporary spin on a sound that honours their folk roots while making their trad arrangements palatable. (Jack Taylor)
Few bands can split at the height of their popularity, lay low for 20 years, only to reunite and spend the next decade touring the world, cranking out a new record every two years; each better than the last. But few bands are quite like Mission of Burma. On their long-awaited return to Glasgow, they
command the city’s prime cultural hub, Mono, for a rare but well-attended show, with messrs Conley, Miller and Prescott about two inches from the crowd. Looking like teen boys despite edging into their 50s, Mission of Burma’s core trio (with Shellac/Volcano Suns’ Bob Weston working the desk and tape loops) are simply crushing from the get-go. Opening with ‘Second Television’ from this year’s Unsound, they blast out song-after-song of career-spanning brilliance with a fervour and energy that belies their age. They quip, jump, headbang, sloppily fall over themselves – literally and figuratively – and take turns blasting out lead vocals, operating as a raw and democratic unit. By the time they hit second-encore ‘That’s How I Escaped My Certain Fate’, the crowd is as gravel-throated and sweaty as the band, but my God is it worth it. (Ryan Drever)