Live – Post-Punk Music

THE ICICLE WORKS @ THE UNDERWORLD, LONDON

Ian McNabb returned to the same venue that he played in the ’90s, performing three sets to celebrate his band The Icicle Works, which marks 40 years since its debut album album of the same name, beginning first on an acoustic set of solo material. He opened this on 1991 debut single, the fluttery idealistic guitar strokes of ‘Great Dreams of Heavens’ and blew into a harmonica for ‘Merseybeast’, the opening track on his third solo album of the same name, also doing a guitar and harmonica bridge in that as well as ‘Camaraderie’ from the same album, with its skippy guitar.

The next set was performed by his bandmate, Icicle Works co-founding member Chris Layhe, also a solo artist. He played the country tinged ‘Sweet Melissa’ and switched to keyboards for the organ sound of ‘Called the Spirit’, a new song inspired by contemporary Ian Prowse’s open mic nights at the Cavern Club in Liverpool. He also did a cover of The Clash’s ‘Should I Stay or Should I Go’, being a fan of the band.

The final set saw both McNabb and Layhe come together for a full Icicle Works set. They performed ‘Hollow Horse’ and ‘Little Girl Lost’, which saw the marrying of light acoustic guitar with rumbling bass, the audience singing along and the duo both doing vocals. They moved onto the only ballad on their 1984 eponymous debut album, ‘Out of Season’; a duet between scaling guitar and trembling bass. Further singalongs included ‘Starry Blue Eyed Wonder’ and then their 1983 second single,’Birds Fly (Whisper to a Scream)’, their only top-40 song with plucky guitar thumping bass.

11/07/24: The Icicle Works @ The Underworld, London.

Photos © Ayisha Khan.

SECTION 25 @ THE SLAUGHTERED LAMB, LONDON

Following the release of their 13th studio album ‘Move On’, Section 25 performed a rare, intimate set predominantly taken from the new release alongside some classic tracks. Founding and remaining member Vin Cassidy, who has been the core of the band since the passing of his brother Larry, performed drums and vocals alongside his bandmate Stephen Stringer (guitar, keyboard, backing vocals), the duo using backing tracks to shape the full sound of their music.

Despite the reliance on backing tracks, their instrumentation maintained an experimental element with Stringer’s ominous, building guitar riffs alongside Cassidy’s rattling percussion in ‘Knew Noise’ and the abrasive Joy Division guitar of ‘Be Brave’. Moving to their new material which made up most of their set, the sound altered with more ambient electronics for the Tangerine Dream-like ‘Move On’; they played more off the new album with the electro-funk creep of ‘We Are On Our Own’ and the New Order sounding dance beats of ‘Gun for Hire’. The band share a lot with the sonic fabric of their Factory contemporaries and friends which showed in the funky percussive of ‘CVI’ so reminiscent of A Certain Ratio, also containing almost string-like pedal effects.

The duo played one further track from the new release in the way of post-punk funk song, ‘Back in the Day’, with its Madchesteresque vocal style accompanied by whiney CAN-like guitar. S25 ended their set on some classics, including ‘Wretch’ from their 1982 second album, ‘The Key of Dreams’, which was also brimming with psychey Gong-like guitar. The duo finished their set on the band’s well known single, ‘Looking from a Hilltop’, taken off their ‘From The Hip’ 1984 album, which was produced by Bernard Sumner.

15/06/24: Section 25 @ The Slaughtered Lamb, London.

Photos © Ayisha Khan.

BIKINI KILL @ ROUNDHOUSE, LONDON

After postponing their UK and European tour dates due to Covid, Bikini Kill finally came over to play from their 1990 – 1996 back catalogue. With founder and frontwoman Kathleen Hanna at the helm alongside original drummer Tobi Vail and bassist Kathi Wilcox, they explosively opened with their debut single, ‘New Radio’, and early track ‘This is Not a Test’ to a crowd of screaming teenage girls who made up most of the audience. From their 1991 demo album, ‘Revolution Girl Style Now’, they performed ‘Feels Blind’, which typifies the grungy, indie guitar infused Riot Grrrl genre from the early ’90s Pacific Northwest that they pioneered, with an artillery style drum intro.

Hanna switched places with Wilcox to play bass whilst Vail left the drums to take over on vocals, relating how she had first heard feminist punk band The Slits when she was 12-13 years old which changed her life, albeit coming to them 5 years after they had first formed in 1976. She sung the circular ‘I Hate Danger’ and intimidatory ‘Double Dare Ya’, from their debut album. After Hanna performed further vocals, Vail sang the innocence of ‘For Only’, also speaking about her hilarious discovery of the nonsensical existence of ‘Egg punk’, then performing ‘Distinct Complicity’; X-Ray Spex-style with vocals reminiscent of Polystyrene. The band also tributed Beth Ditto of Gossip as a major influence.

Hanna returned to vocals and performed the pop-punk anthem ‘Reject All American’ from their second and final album of the same name and ‘Sugar’ from their second, ‘Pussy Whipped’, which she said was about celebrating how she felt inside as opposed to outside which is so dictated by the male gaze. Vail performed vocals once again for the guitar riff driven ‘Hamster Baby’, sung in Eve Libertine gobble-like vocals. Hanna then rounded off the night with a mixture of singles and tracks from their first and second studio albums: ‘I Like Fucking’, ‘Lil’ Red’ and ‘Suck My Left One’. Bikini Kill also did an encore of their other debut single, ‘Rebel Girl’, which Hanna dedicated to Viv Albertine of The Slits who she said was a great writer.

12/06/24: Bikini Kill @ Roundhouse, London.

Photo (top) © Ayisha Khan.

Photo (bottom) © E. Gabriel Edvy/Blackswitch Labs.

THE ZOMBIES @ BARBICAN, LONDON

Celebrating ’60 Years on Tape’, The Zombies concluded their long tour schedules in America and Europe rounding up what was to be their last-ever outside of a festival following founding member Rod Argent’s recent stroke (keyboard, backing vocals); an admirable feat considering its two founders are fastly becoming octogenarians. This was a special evening to close their careers with, full of guest performances and rarities. The night even began with an introduction from special guest, Paul Weller, who has been a lifelong fan, supporter and advocate of the band’s music.

Colin Blunstone (vocals) reminisced about the band’s first recording session at Decca studios back in 1964 when introducing the first and rarely played track, ‘It’s Alright with Me’; its hints of punky, fast played blues rock making it an unusual tempo opener for the band. They resumed with ’60s rock ‘n’ nostalgia with a Titus Turner cover of ‘Sticks and Stones’, then a classic in the way of founding bassist Chris White’s ‘I Love You’, one of their best written songs. Having released a successful new studio album last year, ‘Different Game’, they also performed from its tracklist as on their recent tours, with the title track and then doing their early hit single, ‘Tell Her No’. Their next guest was Stevie Wonder protege, Sarah Brown, a backing singer whose current touring schedule includes singing with Simple Minds; she performed a blowout version of George Gershwin’s ‘Summertime’, mixing in soul and cool jazz to the set.

For the second set, after a short performance from guests ‘The Wandering Hearts’, the band introduced more of their guest singers to cover their critically acclaimed and most adored 1968 album, ‘Odessey & Oracle’ – much performed from over their touring years – first with The Hoosiers’ Irwin Sparkes singing ‘Care of Cell 44’, doing its chirpy melody in his own style. Then Paul Weller returned with his voice well suited to the organ-rich medley of ‘Beechwood Park’, although after his performance he strangely never came back to the stage. He made way for original Zombies bass player and songwriter, Chris White, who despite not being the best of vocalists sang the touching ‘Butcher’s Tale (Western Front 1914)’ about his uncle never returning from war – actually in 1916 – in a more prog-rock vocal, a duet he did with Argent’s Church organ.

And finally, Blunstone resumed the proceedings with perhaps the band’s most well known yet criminally underrated song, ‘Time of the Season’, featuring Argent’s elaborate keyboard solo, which earned them a standing ovation at a sold-out Barbican Hall. The long intricate keyboard solos continued in Argent cover ‘Hold Your Head Up’, which they typically got the audience to singalong too, its guitar wonders also going into the next song, ‘She’s Not There’ in the form of a solo which preceded a bass solo, as played on tour, sampling famous basslines such as The Kinks’ ‘You Really Got Me’ with stripped down drumbeats. The Zombies finished their set with all guests (minus Weller) coming out to sing ‘She’s Not There’, appropriately having been their debut single 60 years earlier and traditionally ended poignantly on a duet between the founding members, ‘The Way I Feel Inside’. Huge thanks to The Zombies for 60 years of fantastic releases and hard touring that has touched fans worldwide.

07/06/24: The Zombies @ Barbican, London.

Photos © Fernanda Bavaresco.

GARY NUMAN @ ROUNDHOUSE, LONDON

In between his new releases, Gary Numan seemingly never stops touring, this year marking the 45th anniversary of his early albums – Tubeway Army’s ‘Replicas’ and his debut solo album, ‘The Pleasure Principle’, both released in 1979. He opened his set on tracks from both releases: the singing synths of eponymous song ‘Replicas’ and ‘M.E.’; the latter saw the masterful meshing of mellifluous synth and industrial, hammering drums as well as reeling guitar. The percussive bashings and guitar continued in ‘Down in the Park’ B-side, ‘Do You Need the Service?’ and the trudge of ‘Engineers’.

With many of the songs from both albums carrying the same rhythmic structure and thick analogue synth sound often drowning out his vocals, Numan also played keyboard for ‘Conversation’ and ‘Praying to the Aliens’; the former with baritone, drone bass and orchestral string synths and the latter with rusty guitar revs, also performing the electro-funk of ‘It Must Have Been Years’. He then brought his daughter Raven on stage to co-sing the rockier robotics of ‘You Are in My Vision’, which was a special moment in the set for both him and fans. Despite the repetitive sound of the tracklists, Numan included more instrumentally varied pieces: the computeronic ‘When the Machines Rock’ and piano keys of anomalous single, ‘Complex’.

Following Tubeway Army single ‘Down in the Park’ and the synth trills of ‘Metal’, Numan ended his set on the whirlwind synth of B-side ‘We Are So Fragile’ and returned for an encore of his best hits from both studio albums: ‘Cars’ from ‘The Pleasure Principle’ and ‘Are ‘Friends’ Electric?’ from ‘Replicas’, following its aforementioned B-side.

08/06/24: Gary Numan @ Roundhouse, London.

Photos © Fernanda Bavaresco.

NEGATIVE APPROACH @ OSLO, LONDON

Making a rare visit to the UK and Europe, John Brannon brought his nostalgia project to live again, playing material from his first hardcore punk band, Negative Approach, one of the first punk bands on the Detroit scene.

They played from their only studio album, 1983’s ‘Tied Down’, as well as their eponymous EP, ‘Negative Approach’, with favourites such as ‘Why Be Something That You’re Not’ featuring the galloping riffs of the band’s guitarist, who performed with his back to the crowd for the entire set; ‘Pressure’, the funky ‘Evacuate’ and their single, ‘Dead Stop’, with its drum intro that caused a commotion and plenty of fans to jump off the stage.

Negative Approach then performed more from their album with the roar of ‘Live Your Life’ and screaming horror of ‘Genocide’; its noise winding down to slow bashing drums and simmering guitar feedback which came to a bludgeoning finish. The band included some covers in their set including Sham 69’s ‘Borstal Breakout’, Iggy and The Stooges’ ‘I Got a Right’ and ‘Solitary Confinement’ by The Weirdos, the vocals of which were of course barely audible as Brannon screamed his way through the set. They also played their eponymous album track, ‘Tied Down’ and ‘Lead Song’, with its higher pitched guitar riff.

30/05/24: Negative Approach @ Oslo, London.

Photos © Fernanda Bavaresco.

BARRY ADAMSON @ HERTFORD CORN EXCHANGE

Promoting his 10th studio album, ‘Cut to Black’, Barry Adamson played a more intimate and quiet date in Hertfordshire following his packed London show at Jazz Cafe the night before.

He went straight into his new material with ‘These Would be Blues’; now with a live drummer and bassist, it had crashing, artillery drums (although a couple of drums rolls would have been even more enhancive). He sang the chorus over the gospel backing track which differs from the record and then onto the bossy beats of ‘Manhattan Satin’ – one of the best songs on the album – playing some dislocated guitar strokes and vocally sampling ‘Psycho Killer’ by Talking Heads, playing on the New York City theme.

The band performed Adamson’s new, jabbing single, ‘Demon Lover’, with him performing a guitar solo and scat singing. The album’s title track, ‘Cut to Black’, despite sorely missing a live keyboard player, contained rusty, weirdo guitar which more than compensated for this; the live rendition sounded better than the recorded version. Adamson then trailed to his back catalogue with his critically acclaimed album, ‘Back to the Cat’, with the slow blues of ‘The Beaten Side of Town’.

For a change in mood, he performed solo on acoustic guitar, with ‘Sundown Country’, which he then transported into a cover of T-Rex’s ‘Hot Love’. He remained on acoustic, backed with his band for new track, ‘The Climber’; a ballad written during the pandemic about the widespread grief at that time. After the big band vibes of ‘Straight ’til Sunrise’, Adamson returned to the new album with its main single, ‘The Last Words of Sam Cooke’: it was missing its more tinny Magazine drum intro but featured a guitar solo as on the record.

Ending his short set, Adamson played some favourites from his 1998 album, ‘As Above So Below’, with ‘Civilisation’, and an encore of big band jazz anthem, ‘Jazz Devil’. Whilst performing more soundtrack artistry live is always a challenge and backing tracks sometimes take over, this was compensated for by Adamson’s guitar playing, vocals and charm, and one can only hope that one day he performs his music with the large instrumentals it surely deserves.

25/05/24: Barry Adamson @ Hertford Corn Exchange.

Photos © Fernanda Bavaresco (photographed at Jazz Cafe).

CURRENT 93 @ UNION CHAPEL, LONDON

The evening began on the showing of two sound immersive films, displaying a panoramic urban landscape with a sound collage, later accompanied by a soundtrack consisting of gushing, mechanical white noise which then crossed into another space of low, rumbling, oppressive frequencies.

The band’s set then opened on a symposium of chaos: the thunderous clatter of grand piano strings being struck, crunching hurdy-gurdy, drilling and screeching electronics, quivering violin, background monk choral singing and cavernous scrapes that accumulated before David Tibet came on stage to perform painful wailings against drum and cymbal bashings. The sound grew to an apocalyptic noise storm that comically gave way to Boney M’s ‘Rivers of Babylon’, which played out while mushroom clouds displayed on the visuals, then growing fainter like a residual fragment leftover after the end of the world.

Afterwards, Current 93 continued into the lullaby of ‘The Descent of Long Satan and Babylon’, with its duet of honeyed violin and classical piano and the acoustic drive of ‘This Carnival is Dead and Gone’. They also performed the rocky sway of ‘A Thousand Witches’, with Tibet’s powerfully expressed vocals and heavy kettle drum bashings. He also sang the Irish folk song of ‘Mary Waits in Silence’, performed to an Irish flute.

Guest singer June Alison Gibbons, one of ‘The Silent Twins’ with her life story the subject of a 2022 film, was then invited by Tibet on stage to perform a spoken-word narrative, ‘The Black Girl’s Blues for the White Girl’, while a short film of the twins was played out on the visuals. The steady keys of ‘In the City’ followed; the creaks of violin burnished with icy synth, with piano tumbling at the end. The band also played the contrasting songs of the floating ‘Clouds at Teatime’ and ‘The Death of the Corn’, the latter featuring tribal drums and Tibet shouting out the chorus while caught up with sirenic violin. Current 93 finished the main set on the brisk acoustic/electric guitar and dizzying violin of ‘Hourglass for Diana’.

They returned for a three-song encore, beginning on the perverted hymn of ‘Happy Birthday Pigface Christus’, with its monotonous percussive crashes. Tibet then welcomed guest backing singer Gibbons back on stage to perform ‘Oh Coal Black Smith’ with him, the song containing nursery rhyme references. They finished their almost 2-hour set on ‘Hushabye Mountain’, a score from one of Tibet’s favourite films.

24/05/24: Current 93 @ Union Chapel, London.

Photos © E. Gabriel Edvy/Blackswitch Labs.

NEW MODEL ARMY @ ROUNDHOUSE, LONDON

Touring their fantastic new album, ‘Unbroken’, the band ended their UK and European tour in London, playing extensively from the release. Remaining founding member Justin Sullivan was joined by his band of Dean White (guitar), Ceri Monger (bass) and Michael Dean (drums) as well as a keyboard player.

They opened on the album with their single ‘Coming or Going’, although it would have made more sense to start on its opening track and first single, ‘First Summer After’, which soon followed; the deafening drums played by Michael Dean elevated on a raised platform, was appropriate given their significant part on the loud production of the album, procured by producer Tchad Blake.

NMA moved onto more songs from the new album, with ‘Language’ and the Burundi beats and croaking, combing guitar of ‘If I Am Still Me’; although the former’s dark spoken-word interlude narrated by Sullivan was sadly less audible. They next played from 2013’s ‘Between Dog and Wolf’, with ‘Stormclouds’, featuring similarly loud tribal drumming and thunderous drum duets between Dean and Monger.

Following an onstage powercut and Sullivan criticising the binary computer age – a big theme on the new release – the band continued on the new tracks with ‘Cold Wind’, a dark waltz with synth strings, before going back to tracks from NMA’s 1989 album, ‘Thunder and Consolation’, which marks its 35th anniversary, performing the melodic chant of ‘Green and Grey’. They returned again to the new album with ‘Idumea’, its unusual, minimalistic sound exposing skipping drumbeats against gospel chorals.

NMA performed one of the finest songs on ‘Unbroken’, the Brexit themed ‘Reload’, complete with the dizzying keyboard, which it was nice to see they had bothered to include, and ‘Angry Planet’, both played with petrol loaded, chainsaw guitar. They finished their main set on ’90s material with the synth dances of ‘Purity’ and the explosive ‘What a Wonderful Way to Go’, with an encore of their early singles ‘Bittersweet’ and ‘No Rest’. Despite an angry, detonative set, the band missed off their main single, ‘I Did Nothing Wrong’, on this tour, which seemed like a huge oversight and retracted slightly from what was otherwise the best show of the year, following the best album of the year.

11/05/24: New Model Army @ Roundhouse, London.

Photos © Anna Marchesani/Nocturna Photography.

A CERTAIN RATIO @ FABRIC, LONDON

On their tour promoting the recent release of their thirteenth studio album, ‘It All Comes Down to This’, the band performed it in its entirety in track order as well as a set of their classic staples. The lineup was more stripped down with their three founding members Jez Kerr (vocals, keyboard), Martin Moscrop (guitar, trumpet, drums, percussion) and Donald Johnson (backing vocals, drums, bass, percussion), with the addition of their newer member Viv (bass, backing vocals, percussion), which gave a rare minimalistic vibe contrasted to the earlier days of the band.

However, the album is anything but minimalistic, being a full spectrum of sound. They began on its opening title track and main single, ‘All Comes Down to This’, with Moscrop’s trickling guitar slide effects alongside backing tracks being utilised to attain the complete sound effects on the recorded version. Second single, the trippy ‘Keep it Real’ followed, but ‘We All Need’, with the entwinement of Viv’s creeping bass and Moscrop’s Herbie Hancock guitar made this the best performed of the album’s three opening tracks; Moscrop playing trumpet later in the track albeit slipping slightly.

The following technology themed songs ‘Surfer Ticket’ and ‘Bitten by a Lizard’ took the set down a darker direction as on the album; the former saw Moscrop’s tingly feedback and Johnson backing up Kerr’s vocals, but could have done with more hard hitting dub effects to reflect the cut-up technology used on the record. The latter saw a melody of keyboard, plucky guitar and electronic-style cymbal tapping and feedback drone effects turning into jangle rock with a drumming interlude that was reminiscent of ‘Do the Du’; it was done perfectly to recreate the song’s chilling atmospherics.

The more funky element of the album was seen in ‘Out From Under’; its ‘Shack Up’ sound saw a combination of deep bass groove and jagged guitar, also with Viv’s backing vocals which were welcome in the absence of the band’s backing singer Ellen Beth Abdi – who was on solo support for the band on this tour – and lifted the song off the recorded version. Johnson then narrated his biographical tale in the lumpy swing of ‘Estate Kings’, which had multi-instrumentalist Moscrop switching between cool jazz trumpet and wah wah pedal effects. Final album track, ‘Dorothy Says’, based on the poem ‘Resumé’ by American writer Dorothy Parker, ended their new album performance but needed more guitar twang.

ACR started the next part of their set on older material with the build of ‘Winter Hill’ from their second 1981 studio album, ‘To Each…’, and a rarity in the way of ‘Touch’ from 1982’s ‘I’d Like to See You Again. However, they still stayed current with newer tracks such as their 2019 cover of Talking Heads’ ‘Houses in Motion’, with a guitar pedal effect intro but lacking punch, two tracks from 2000’s ‘ACR Loco’ and ‘Samo’ from their last studio release, ‘1982’. The best performed song from their back catalogue was ‘Good Together’ from ‘acr:mcr’, which was introduced with a BBC radio sample and had cowbell and stiff drumming, which really transported back to the classic days of the band. They finished their set on ‘Shack Up’ and ‘Knife Slits Water’, the latter with Johnson reeling the funk on slap bass.

02/05/24: A Certain Ratio @ Fabric, London.

Photos © E. Gabriel Edvy/Blackswitch Labs.

JAH WOBBLE @ THE GARAGE, LONDON

For the second time in London in the space of a few months, the band returned to play Jah Wobble’s 2021 album, ‘Metal Box – Rebuilt in Dub’, in its entirety with former Siouxsie & The Banshees’ guitarist Jon Klein, who also collaborated with the former PiL bassist on his 2023 solo studio album, ‘A Brief History of Now’. They opened on ‘Albatross’, with Klein’s demented guitar strokes and a stripped down interlude. ‘The Suit’ was sang with Wobble’s aptly suited Cockney accent; it contained his triggering basslines and Klein’s guitar effects with explosive noise outbursts.

‘Poptones’, one of the best songs PiL ever made, was introduced with an extended spoken word intro comically narrated by Wobble; the chiming ambient guitar and fluttering piano duet gave way to the blossoming of the full sound of the track, whilst calmly at its centre remained the grounded bassline, which happens to be one of the best Wobble wrote. For variation on the recorded versions on the album, ‘Fodderstompf’ in its latter half became a CAN piece, with Wobble on tom-toms and guitars straining and building, before he signalled for a gear change and the song ended on a keyboard solo. Klein then performed vocals for the Sex Pistols-style riffed, ‘No Birds’, although his vocals were lacking good sound quality and could barely be made out.

After the bone shattering feedback of ‘Careering’, hybridised Invaders of the Heart version of ‘Public Image’ and live drum and bass version of ‘Socialist’, Wobble cheekily said to a PiL fan in the audience, “Have you seen them since I left? I’m not being funny – they’re OK. I don’t think the band was ever the same when I split.” By popular demand, they then performed ‘Swan Lake’; the heavy noise of the track dissipated for George King’s (keyboard) glittering, sharp keys in the interlude, with alternating guitar parts between Klein and Martin Chung (guitar) and the former’s twisted, cyclical hammer-ons-and-pull-offs in the chorus. They finished their set on an instrumental noise track, the gothic trudge of ‘Graveyard’ that was complimented well by Klein’s Banshees’ background.

26/04/24: Jah Wobble @ The Garage, London.

Photos © E. Gabriel Edvy/Blackswitch Labs.

HANS-JOACHIM ROEDELIUS + ARNOLD KASAR @ JAZZ CAFE, LONDON

The pair began on a 40-minute collaboration which was completely improvisational and played from memory, with Hans-Joachim Roedelius on classical piano sounding keyboard against Arnold Kasar’s solarised synth effects which contrasted with the former’s melodies that are akin to landscape painting, with him also creating electric noise such as ethereal grumblings and light rays, radio frequencies and cavernous depths.

Kasar also created these sonar-like noise effects with Roedelius’ rumbling piano becoming more dimmed and forming a bassline for the former’s sharp synthesiser. Roedelius next moved onto his quick footed piano concerto as well as a composition he wrote with his former Cluster peers, Brian Eno and Dieter Möbius, named ‘By this River’, to which he sang vocals and dedicated to Eno.

For their only non-improvisational track of the night, the pair performed from their 2017 collaborative studio album, ‘Einfluss’, with a short ballerina-like melody called ‘Rolling’ that Roedelius had interpreted following their meeting at a festival that Kasar was invited by them to perform at in 2012 and he has since been familiarising himself with the genius’ vast catalogue of works. They both returned to do an encore with a final piece of haunting ambience; the former’s methodical keys were complimented by Kasar’s soaring synth injections, until they jammed the two sounds into one ringing body of light, adorned by Roedelius’ fluttering trills. Sheer magic.

08/04/24: Hans-Joachim Roedelius + Arnold Kasar @ Jazz Cafe, London.

Photos © Anna Marchesani/Nocturna Photography.

J MASCIS @ EARTH, LONDON

Following soon after his 30th anniversary tour of Dinosaur Jr.’s album ‘Where You Been’ in which he played five consecutive nights at The Garage, frontman J Mascis returned for a one-man tour of his new solo album, ‘What Do We Do Now’, although he only played three songs from the tracklist during the whole set.

He started on the new album early on performing his dainty single, ‘You Don’t Understand Me’, with high and low guitar pitches against a backing rhythm guitar track. There were plenty of Dinosaur Jr. covers such as ‘Out There’, which was performed at the band’s residency at The Garage, featuring its distinct tumbling riff, Mascis applying reverb with pedal and utilising delay microphone effects. He performed a rare track from the band’s post-breakup period when he formed The Fog, playing its most pivotal release, the hopping ‘Ammaring’ with heavier pedal solos and moved onto an acoustic cover of Phoebe Bridgers’ ‘Motion Sickness’.

Following new song ‘Can’t Believe We’re Here’ and its pedal interlude, the title track of the new album, ‘What Do We Do Now’, was played on a more acoustic sounding guitar before Mascis sang ‘Get Me’ with a howling voice effect and intense, pedal-driven noise solo. The perturbed, brash strokes of ‘Heal the Star’ ended on a country-tinged noise solo with Mascis finishing his main set on Dinosaur Jr.’s ‘Alone’ from their 1997, ‘Hand it Over’.

He returned for an encore of Greg Sage and Mazzy Star covers, with the latter’s ‘Fade into You’ being particularly melodically haunting.

07/04/24: J Mascis @ EartH, London.

MODERN ENGLISH @ KOKO, LONDON

Supporting Buzzcocks on their UK & European tour, Modern English made their first live appearance in the country for over five years. They performed a short set, currently promoting their new studio album, ‘1 2 3 4’, which was released earlier this year, although did not have their full lineup, with a touring lineup that was missing some of their original members, keyboardist Stephen Walker and guitarist Gary McDowell.

They began on ‘Gathering Dust’, the 1980 single release on the brilliant 4AD label. It was showered in electronic keyboard effects from a backing track, with wirey, rippling guitar throughout. They then played ‘Someone’s Calling’, a single from their second album, 1982’s ‘After the Snow’, with its distinct hammer-on and pull-off guitar parts, although at times the rhythm guitar would have benefited from being even louder. Frontman Robbie Grey’s vocals carry a live quality which harkens back to an ‘early days’ feel, with him also playing tambourine between lyrics.

The band soon moved to the new studio album with its singles, ‘Long in the Tooth’ and ‘Not My Leader’; for the second one especially – a defiant song about political leaders – there was lighter keyboard backing, so the more stripped down instrumentation came through, with both whirring guitar pedal effects and melting post-punk tones amongst a beating rhythm section, featuring original bassist Michael Conroy. From neo-punk they moved to classic punk from their 1981 debut album, ‘Mesh & Lace’, playing two tracks from this period: ‘Black Houses’, with the guitarist keying the fretboard to create a feedback effect at the start, and then their explosive non-album 1980 debut 4AD single, ‘Swans on Glass’, with scratchy pedal and wah wah effects. Grey strummed acoustic guitar for this song as well as their last one, their 1982 single ‘I Melt with You’, on which the band finished ahead of their fuller London headline show later this month.

22/03/24: Modern English @ KOKO, London.

Photos © E. Gabriel Edvy/Blackswitch Labs.

ELECTRONIC CAFE LIVE, VOLUME 2 – PETER DUGGAL + TINY MAGNETIC PETS + WOLFGANG FLÜR + MARK REEDER @ 299 THE VENUE, LONDON

For the second volume of Electronic Cafe’s showcase of talent from the electronic genre hosted by organisers Mark Wibrow and Andy McNab, the former Kraftwerk percussionist, Wolfgang Flür, headlined with his techno rave show. Before his set, his music partner Peter Duggal opened the night performing a selection of his own tracks, playing the dizzying, brassy synth track, ‘Always Rise’, for which he did vocals, and the warm, spatial breathing space of the ambient and uplifting ‘Edifices’. Duggal moved onto the EBM beats of ‘Disconnected’, from the 2023 EP of the same name as are the aforementioned tracks, for which he also did vocals, and ended on a long, bleeping electronic piece called ‘Lozells Drone Survey’, from a release just the day after his set on the Polytechnic Youth label, and his own collaborative track with Flür, ‘Birmingham’, featured on the latter’s last album, on which they worked with Peter Hook; it noticeably having a New Order feel to it. He did vocals for this too which made it feel more like a live performance than just a DJ set.

Tiny Magnetic Pets were next on the bill with their three-piece synth-pop blend; having supported the likes of Flür and Midge Ure on tour, the Irish musicians have firmly cut their name in the electronic landscape. They started on the fizzing synths and bracketing electric drumbeats of ‘Here Comes the Noise’; Paula Gilmer’s vocals carrying hints of Marc Almond. They moved onto hard hitting, robotic dance track ‘Automation’ which was re-mixed by Erasure’s Vince Clarke, merging the ’80s with the early ’90s. ‘We Shine’ saw repetitive keys that were as emotionally uplifting as the lyrics and the deep pools of liquid synth in darker track ‘No One at the Safehouse’ surrounded a more minimalist duet between Gilmer and keyboard player Seán Quinn. They also included the Numanesque synth of ‘City Sleeps’, ending their set on the 9-minute rocky track of ‘Semaphore’ and its wailing Ultravox-style keyboard solo, which dissolved into ambient waves before lighting up again for the finale.

With his traditional slideshow of Kraftwerk related imagery playing out in the background, Flür began his set on his last studio album, ‘Magazine 1’, with ‘Say No’; a collaboration with Maps. He then launched into his manic techno rave with ‘Musik Soldat’; a marching tune that the ex-Kraftwerk group member has played all over the world – it retains elements of Kraftwerk’s trademark electronic sound infused with white noise and oriental synths. This was taken over by a mechanical, boxy drive track and the growls and arcade game effects of a more industrial sounding track, although these would have been better if there were some noise effects performed by him live, but he opts for his robot dancing throughout the set instead.

Continuing with his latest album, Flür sewed samples from his title track, ‘Magazine’, into a fluid techno beat, but it was a shame to lose so much of it in the thumping sound. Continuing with the new album, he played the galloping beats and samples from ‘Best Buy’, with sound effects and maniacal laughter. He also included a cover of the magical ‘Neon Lights’ from Kraftwerk’s ‘The Man-Machine’, and a fashionably banal ‘Cinema’ with underlying synths and a built-in vocal sample. Flür then played his latest single, ‘Electric Sheep’, from his last album, with deconstructed, bubbling synth. He ended his set on exploding synth streams which launched into a full fledged whizzing techno track, before donning his kaiser helmet and marching about the stage to the last song.

The night closed on a more sparsely packed dance floor for the phenomenal talent that is Berlin based, Mancunian DJ Mark Reeder, who made a rare appearance in the UK doing a set inspired by his ’70s-80s influences. This began on a drawn out mix of John Foxx’s ‘Underpass’ and moved to his own tracks such as ‘Lovers of the World (Remarkable mix) and ’21st Century Girl’, with him also playing his other collaborations such as ‘Chaos (Downtown in China remix)’ by STOLEN and closing on Anne Clark’s ‘If’ (Mark Reeder’s Seemingly Forever mix). Unfortunately, Reeder’s set was cut short due to the venue’s licensing laws, so it would be fantastic to see him come back to the UK to headline in the near future.

16/03/24: Electronic Cafe Live, Volume 2 – Peter Duggal + Tiny Magnetic Pets + Wolfgang Flür + Mark Reeder @ 229 the venue, London.

https://youtube.com/@electroniccafemusic?si=TIBkptTDkn1Pei-s

Photos © E. Gabriel Edvy/Blackswitch Labs.

SWELL MAPS C21 @ MOTH CLUB, LONDON

The experimental collective now known as Swell Maps C21 put on a rare, sold out show featuring some new and previously unreleased tracks. The group consists of Jowe Head (guitar, vocals, occasional bass, tambourine), Luke Haines (guitar, vocals), Dave Callahan (guitar, vocals, occasional bass), Lee McFadden (bass, occasional guitar), Chloe Herington (melodica, synthesiser), Lucie Rejchrtova (keyboards, backing vocals) and Jeff Bloom (drums).

They began with a new song, the growling ‘Morning Star’, moving onto their recorded favourites from their various albums such as ‘International Rescue’, from the album of the same name, and ‘Harmony in Your Bathroom’ from their 1979 debut, ‘A Trip to Marineville’, with Head on vocals and radio transmission. They also performed ‘Secret Island’, originally a 1980 Peel session, with Wiresque layered guitars and whizzing radio frequency effects. Following the keyboard based duet of ‘Jelly Babies’, the band played ‘Helicopter Spies’ (Haines on vocals) racing guitar and its classical piano ending, ‘Raincoat’s Room’. They did a cover of Can’s ‘One More Night’ from the group’s acclaimed ‘Ege Bamyasi’ album, building instrumentals over the rhythm section, with hopping electronics and deep guitar tones.

After playing their 1980 single, ‘Let’s Build a Car’, Swell Maps C21 performed two unreleased songs, the choppy ‘Foam Rubber Wedding’ and ‘Vertical Take Off and Landing’, the latter inspired by Head’s air force upbringing. They extended a long noise rock piece for ‘Full Moon (in My Pocket)’, which amongst wailings included vocals from Can’s ‘Mother Sky’ and traditional folk song ‘Gower Wassail’. The band finished on the ‘Pink Flag’ feels of ‘Midget Submarines’, jam packed with feedback.

15/03/24: Swell Maps C21 @ Moth Club, London.

ECHO + THE BUNNYMEN @ ROUNDHOUSE, LONDON

On their ‘Songs to Learn and Sing’ tour, the Liverpudlian band commemorate their chart topping compilation album from 1985 featuring all the singles they released up to that point in their history. However, the setlist also included other non-single tracks that do not feature on the album but are staples in the band’s set honing back to their 40th year anniversary tour in 2022, headed by with their original singer and guitarist, Ian McCulloch and Will Sergeant, the former who confessed he would make more effort to chat with the audience during shows.

They opened on their earliest material with a trilogy selected from their debut 1980 ‘Crocodiles’ album, with ‘Going Up’, ‘All That Jazz’ and ‘Rescue’, also with a later track sandwiched between, ‘Flowers’, from their 2001 album of the same name; its pastel post-punk shades interrupted only by a short fuzzy guitar solo, although McCulloch’s vocals were a bit sloppy, with the acoustic guitar driven track ‘All My Colour (Zimbo)’ also lethargic, but his vocals had improved by the time they had reached the end of the first set with the soaring majesty of ‘Bring on the Dancing Horses’.

The Bunnymen had decided upon an interval to split the night into two sets; the second set following with ‘Show of Strength’; the tribal drums of the track being particularly standout but not reflected as much live. One of the strongest points in the entire night came in the next single, 1981’s ‘Over the Wall’, which had crashing drums and stretches of turbulent guitar exploding into its chorus. McCulloch then sang The Bunnymen’s 1997 hit single ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’, which he neatly integrated into a cover of Lou Reed’s ‘Walk on the Wild Side’. His vocals, however, were still off tune in ‘Bedbugs & Ballyhoo’, with ‘The Killing Moon’ and ‘The Cutter’, their consecutive year hit singles, similarly suffering to the point McCulloch let the audience take over. Fortunately Sergeant’s crisp, oriental guitar made up for this.

The band finished on an encore of ‘Lips Like Sugar’, which broke down into an interval in which McCulloch during murmurous banter with fans called for the skinning alive of paedophiles. The band finished the night on a second encore with the delicate acoustics of ‘Ocean Rain’, from the studio album of the same name. A little disappointing but there were moments of reprieval.

08/03/24: Echo + The Bunnymen @ Roundhouse, London.

JOHN COOPER CLARKE @ LONDON PALLADIUM

Following the release this year of his latest book of poems, ‘What’, Dr John Cooper Clarke performed from the collection, the publication of which also coincides with the artist’s 50th anniversary as the ‘punk poet’. Support sets came from Luke Wright, Mike Garry, Freya Beer and Linton Kwesi Johnson.

Clarke delivered a setlist of his best known poems amongst the new works, beginning on the tradition of ‘The Official Guestlist’ and ‘Hire Car’. He also honed in on his northern background with the “predictable rhyming style” of ‘Burnley’, proceeding to mock the town as being full of inbreds. ‘Smooth Operetta’, written many years ago but which now features in ‘What’, is an advert for Clarke’s favourite pair of jeans – “Farahs: they cover your legs.” ‘Thug’ is a new poem, with seedy lyrics about an unsavoury character who threatens to “block up your airways with a secondhand butt plug”; to uplift everyone from this awful image, he performed another poem from his new book, the short comical quatrain of ‘Sir Tom Jones’.

He returned again to some classics with the horse racing commentary narration speed of ‘Beasley Street’ (and its updated regeneration in ‘Beasley Boulevard’). Clarke then spent a fair amount of time speaking about marriage, which he mostly negatively critiqued; a sentiment quite evidently seen in his dual titled new poem, ‘The Marital Miseries of the Modern Misogynist’ or ‘The Rime of the Ancient Marrier’, for which he got into a ‘misogynist mood’ with the joke, “What is the difference between Iron Man and Iron Woman? One is a superhero; the other is an order.” The poem, a lockdown tale about a weary husband who’s about to snap from the imprisonment of his “sugar trap” marriage, is both dark and humorous.

The post-punk bard did a quick encore of two more favourites, ‘Twat’ and a short version of ‘I Want to Be Yours’ before wrapping up the night and ushering people to go to the lobby to buy some merch.

12/03/24: John Cooper Clarke @ London Palladium.

PETER COYLE @ THE FORGE, LONDON

The ex-Lotus Eaters frontman now turned solo artist did a short nationwide solo tour celebrating 40 years of the band’s 1984 debut album, ‘No Sense of Sin’, which he performed in full with a backing band on acoustic guitar and keyboard. The decision to play the tracks acoustically was brave considering the full instrumentation of the ‘new wave’ Liverpool band.

Peter Coyle opened his set on the band’s 1984 single, ‘German Girl’, then after introducing the show he continued the tracklist in order with ‘Love Still Flows’; a fluttery song with guitarist Roger Cartwright also providing backing vocals. ‘Can You Keep a Secret’ highlighted Coyle’s vocal range accompanied by Joe Orban’s high pitched tumbling keys and Cartwright’s brisk acoustic guitar strokes. They went on to play the band’s ghostly 1984 single ‘Out on Your Own’, with Coyle scat singing and dancing about the stage at the end. Whist the acoustic interpretations of the band’s songs lacked the post-punk instrumentation of their recorded versions, this worked favourably to enhance Coyle’s great songmanship and intimate connection to the audience.

Moving onto side B of the album, Coyle sang the band’s third single ‘Set Me Apart’, with piano parts; like many of these stripped back, live renditions, it was surprisingly improved from the recorded versions. ‘You Fill Me with Your Need’ was performed with smacking acoustic guitar and pressured keys, Coyle once again doing his frenzied dancing and scat singing, filling the space well on what was otherwise a vacuous stage.

And then they performed the Lotus Eater’s debut 1983 single, ‘First Picture of You’; although without its magical, chiming electric guitar, the pastel post-punk song had the audience singing along to its memorable chorus even after the song had ended. ‘When You Look at Boys’ had a pendulum sway and dreamy synth, with the trio finishing the album tracklist on ‘Start of the Search’, with a more tense ending than the recorded version produced by twinkling piano keys. Coyle also included other songs not on the release such as their monumental standalone single, ‘It Hurts’, which was released after the band’s debut album in 1985.

01/02/24: Peter Coyle @ The Forge, London.

DEAD BOYS @ THE UNDERWORLD, LONDON

Following postponement of their dates a few years earlier due to injury and the pandemic, Dead Boys are finally back on the road with a fresh new lineup that consists of Jake Hoyt (vocals), Cheetah Chrome (guitar, backing vocals), Monk Burris (guitar), Sam Harris (bass) and Michael Maysonet (drums), with Hoyt hailing from Oakland, California and the remainder members from Las Vegas.

They opened their explosive set on the band’s 1977 first and best known single, ‘Sonic Reducer’, from their infamous ‘Young, Loud and Snotty’ debut studio album that has secured its place in esteemed punk rock history; its dark guitar reminiscent of bands that came after it such as the Dead Kennedys, because Dead Boys were the punk rock pioneers and now with the stubbornly death resistant Cheetah Chrome still at their helm as “the last man standing” from that era they spearheaded, combining the glam wave of the New York Dolls with the raw power of The Stooges and The Dictators.

With their show coincidentally being on Valentine’s Day, the band continued to play from their debut album with its range of love songs, including ‘What Love is’, with Chrome’s slick bluesy guitar, which was also audible in their second album ‘We Have Come for Your Children’ track, ‘Flame Thrower Love’. Although there were sound issues throughout the set, Dead Boys persevered and moved onto another song from the same release, ‘I Won’t Look Back’, with drum rolls and chord contrasts. The dual high and low tones of ‘Not Anymore’ also featured Chrome’s guitar fretwork and Hout crowd surfing before the band played a currently unrecorded song, ‘So Sad’, with undulating guitar playing, a track that will feature on their forthcoming new album.

The set climaxed on the second album with ‘Son of Sam’; Chrome, Burris and Harris lining up to play an extended interval to the song around Hout’s screams. In the same way the band repeated this with the debut album in ‘Down in Flames’; the clatter of drums and heavy metal guitars making this a kick-ass live experience. After paying tribute to departed frontman and original Dead Boy, Stiv Bators, the band ended their set on the windy comedown of ‘Ain’t it Fun’. Short but sweet, this tour marks the beginning of a new chapter of live and recorded activity that breathes new life into the original punk rock legends.

14/02/24: Dead Boys @ The Underworld, London.

MICHAEL ROTHER @ BARBICAN, LONDON

The Krautrock pioneer Michael Rother returned to London for another Neu! anniversary show celebrating 50 years of the group playing with his band, with his 1970’s influential compositions which mixed flaring guitars with electronic experimentation. He was accompanied on guitar by his group formed of Franz Bargmann (guitar), Hans Lampe (drums) as well as his partner Vittoria Macaroni (backing vocals, electronics). The show was somewhat a repeat of the anniversary show last year.

They began their set on some of Neu’s best known compositions such as their ‘Neuschnee’ and ‘Isi’ singles from their eponymous debut album, the former with triumphant guitar streams and the latter like falling pyrotechnics with glockenspiel tones, performed by Rother with the help of his co-guitarist Bargmann. They then moved onto Rother’s other group, Harmonia, with ‘Vetaranissimo’, a live track on compilation ‘Live 1974’ which introduced more rhythm into the set with the oriental clatter of drums, Rother tweaking electronics, a sound that surely gave rise to the electronic dance genre with its techno beats reminiscent of CAN, as did ‘Maultrommel’.

Rother’s own solo material featured in the way of ‘Zyklodrom’ from his 1977 album ‘Flammende Herzen’, containing scaling guitar chords reminiscent of ‘Neuschnee’. The band then played another Harmonia song, ‘Deluxe (Immer Wieder)’ from the 1975 album of the same name, chugging beats with soft guitar strokes that built into longer, wizzing streams. In contrast, ‘Wiessensee’ had melancholy guitar, with the track’s harmonic mellowness accompanied by smashing beats. As usual, Rother finished the main set on ‘Negativland’, with Macabruni on vocals, however, these were not loud enough to be audible enough over the noise. The encore saw the group come back for three energising tracks that varied somewhat from their last UK show, featuring two more Harmonia songs, ‘Holta-Polta’, with Macabruni’s noisy electronics strangling out the guitar, and ‘Dino’ from their 1974 debut album.

03/02/24: Michael Rother @ Barbican, London.

THE CRAZY WORLD OF ARTHUR BROWN @ PIZZA EXPRESS LIVE HOLBORN

The God of Hellfire played a one-off intimate show at the restaurant music venue but without his vast array of costume changes and masks, choosing to simply perform in one persona all evening wearing a plumaged top hat and crow feather adorned jacket as well as his traditional ‘shock rock’ facepaint.

The set was in two parts, which saw The Crazy World of Arthur Brown perform from the band’s eponymous debut album. They opened on the slow blues rock of ‘You Don’t Know’ featuring both guitar and organ solos and the vigorous creep of the ‘Devil’s Grip’; a track added on to the album in later reissues. Joking about his lack of commercial success, frontman Arthur Brown performed ‘Nightmare’, flailing his arms with his banshee screaming synchronising into a crescendo with bubbling keyboards, ending the song on a hilarious question about the cube root of a barnacle.

Brown also included two covers performed more poignantly, ‘Don’t Let me be Misunderstood’ with silvery guitar and trickles of classical piano (played on a piano forte) by Nina Simone and Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ ‘I Put a Spell on You’. During the set Brown read from his diary notes from back in the day, entertaining with all manner of musings and footnotes relating to his work which also allowed him to warmly connect to the audience, not usually afforded at regular music venues.

For the second set Brown returned with more tracks off his debut album including its cover of James Brown’s ‘I’ve Got Your Money’ and ‘Fire Poem’; a terrifying spoken word piece that ended in a frenzy of instrumentals leading straight into his number one hit song, ‘Fire’, which he opened in typical fashion with the words, “I am the God of Hellfire and I bring you…Fire!”. He paused with a cover of ‘Serenade’ halfway through the song, also with an organ solo, before finishing the track. Brown dedicated the sweetly sung ballad ‘Voice of Love’ to his wife before the band finished the set doing solo instrumentals.

18/01/24: The Crazy World of Arthur Brown @ Pizza Express Live Holborn.