Category: Live Reports (Page 25 of 37)

WOLFGANG FLÜR Live at Hoxton Bar and Kitchen

31 January 2015 /

WOLFGANG-09A packed Hoxton Bar was filled to capacity including the DJ who helped popularize KRAFTWERK in UK, Rusty Egan, Stevo Pearce of Some Bizarre, Clive Pierce from HARD CORPS, VILE ELECTRODES and assorted members of SPEAK & SPELL and ANALOG ANGEL.

Support DJ Annie Hogan did a sterling job in warming up the crowd with spins of SOFT CELL’s ‘Memorabilia’, a remix of FAD GADGET’s ‘Coitus Interruptus’ and the ‘Travelogue’ version of ‘Being Boiled’.

During the evening’s main set, several of the background images flashed up “WOLFGANG FLÜR – ex-KRAFTWERK”, but in reality, the man (machine) himself needed no such introduction.

There was a huge sense of anticipation as to what Flür would perform, as aside from his time spent with KRAFTWERK and YAMO with MOUSE ON MARS, there has been little in the way of solo work and only the recent release of ‘Activity Of Sound’ by iEUROPEAN (coincidentally Sean Barron of that project was present tonight too).

WOLFGANG-11The set started promisingly with a hard-edged remix of ‘Home Computer’, whilst behind Flür were projected images of his time spent in KRAFTWERK, many of them from his private collection, showing an often unseen and candid side of the band that Hütter and Schneider have constantly tried to suppress. Taken alongside Flür’s controversial book ‘I Was A Robot’, many of the show’s images seemed calculated to help destroy the myth of the band as being automatons who only exist to clock in and out of Kling Klang studio, didn’t have girlfriends, and (God-forbid) enjoyed a social drink or two!

One could easily imagine the sight of Ralf Hütter walking in on the set and face-palming at the sight of some of the (less than flattering) images on show here. However, for the crowd, it provided a fascinating insight into some of the lesser-seen life and times of this iconic German band.

Throughout the set, Flür DJ’d using a Mac and occasionally manipulated a Korg Kaoss pad to filter some of the tracks, and after about 20 minutes it soon became apparent that the set was going to be far from a laurel-resting KRAFTWERK ‘Greatest Hits’ performance despite the reliance on images which seemed to suggest otherwise.

WOLFGANG-10Tracks such as ‘Overdrive’ from Karl Bartos’ 1993 ELEKTRIC MUSIC album ‘Esperanto’ and the unreleased proposed sequel to ‘The Model’: ‘Cover Girl’ by the YAMO project provided some welcome relief from a set of mainly vocal-less techno which made up 80% of the tracks played. Despite a dogged determination not to play the nostalgia card, Flür seemed to thoroughly enjoy himself on stage, mimicking some of the animations behind him, throwing a few dad-dancing shapes and bringing out his Pickelhaube army hat at the climax of a driving techno set.

Ironically, the music and images seemed to click best when there wasn’t the distraction of the KRAFTWERK images behind Flür, with the venues lighting flashing to accompany time-lapse footage synced to the driving beats coming from his computer.

WOLFGANG-01After about an hour the set was over and despite desperate shouts for an encore, Flür came back onto the Hoxton stage and explained that he didn’t have one. Such is his reputation, WOLFGANG FLÜR could have probably played anything vaguely electronic and the majority of the crowd would have travelled home happy.

But for many, it may have felt like a missed opportunity not to showcase some more KRAFTWERK songs. A snippet of the “21st Century” vocal from ‘Expo 2000’ made a tantalizing appearance half way through the set, but that (alongside the opening ‘Home Computer’ remix) was all you got.

With the unexpected passing of TANGERINE DREAM’s Edgar Froese a few days earlier, it did however feel reassuring to be able to enjoy an evening in the company of one of electronic music’s legendary founding fathers, and although the music played may not have been quite what was anticipated, it was still an hour spent with an undeniable legend who’s band and technology formed the blueprint of much of the music we listen to today.

‘Activity of Sound’ by iEUROPEAN featuring WOLFGANG FLÜR is released on Subculture Records. The download bundle including a remix by Clive Pierce and Rob Doran of HARD CORPS is available from http://subculturerecords.bandcamp.com/album/activity-of-sound

http://www.musiksoldat.de

https://www.facebook.com/musiksoldat

https://twitter.com/iwasarobot

Text by Paul Boddy
Photos by Richard Price
31st January 2015

ERASURE Live In London

17 December 2014 /

Andy Bell and Vince Clarke have been certainly riding on a reinvigorated artistic wave thanks to the warm reception accorded to ERASURE’s latest album ‘The Violet Flame’.

Their best album since 2005’s ‘Nightbird’, their continued popularity has been reflected in the number of sold out shows on ‘The Violet Flame’ tour. But perhaps the biggest surprise at The Forum in London tonight was how little of ‘The Violet Flame’ was actually played. When the entire of ‘Light At The End Of The World’ was aired on the 2007 tour and nowhere near the quality of ‘The Violet Flame’, it all seemed a bit strange. But for the many ERASURE fans who had gathered for their heroes, this didn’t matter.

So effectively, this was a greatest hits show in all but name. Beginning with a danced up ‘Oh L’Amour’, the crowd were quickly bouncing around for the one of ERASURE’s early classics. As the pumped up 2014 reboot set the scene, its half sister ‘Star’ continued the template with a Miami styled backbone while ‘Breath Of Life’ ensured the dancing that had started would continue.

There was then was the first of the evening’s surprises with the premiere live performance of ‘Make It Wonderful’. Andy Bell openly waved a lyric sheet and donned his reading glasses to complete the task; it was an indicator of why this charming man’s down-to-earth nature has connected so well with ERASURE’s legion of loyal followers over the years.

One of the original compositions from last year’s seasonal ‘Snow Globe’ album, it helped everyone to get into the festive spirit.

To fit in with the disco spirit of ‘The Violet Flame’album, Clarke reprogrammed ERASURE’s many hits into more dance friendly formats. But this approach was balanced with preserving the integrity and feel of the original songs. While none of the rearrangements were unlistenable EDM blow-outs or the sort of death-by-drop aberrations of Harris, Guetta and the like, the arrangements did bring a fun guessing game element to proceedings.

The most extreme of these was ‘You Surround Me’ which was speeded up into a disco-rock fusion like a Giorgio Moroder production for ‘Top Gun’. The Moroder-inspired approach continued with ‘Stop!’ enhanced to make its elements of Donna Summer’s ‘Love’s Unkind’ even more blindingly obvious.

Meanwhile, ‘Ship Of Fools’ got a Hip Hop styled drum machine treatment which led to Andy Bell twerking during the breakdown, proving that the hip replacement he received back in 2004 was still in good working order. The first of the three numbers from ‘The Violet Flame’ was the single ‘Elevation’, its rousing nature capturing ERASURE’s newly refound energetic zest. Even better though was ‘Dead Of Night’ with its extremely catchy “D-D-D-D…” hook.

As well as working around beats and grooves, part of the other reason for ERASURE’s artistic resurgence has been Vince Clarke’s move to composing on synths rather than his usual guitar, a technique which the Basildon boy recently admitted could make the songs sound “very folky”. This change of tact was showcased at its zenith with ‘Sacred’. But despite the cutting rave stabs and thundering rhythms, its topline did appear to bear a rather striking resemblance to GUNS ‘N’ ROSES’ ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’!!! The thought of Axl Rose going techno is amusing, but then, both he and Andy Bell have a similar taste for skin tight cycling shorts.

The stage was much barer than on previous tours, so much of the visual accompaniment relied on a greater use of lights. As usual, Vince Clarke stood impassively behind his laptop and controller, venturing to acoustic guitar only when required and beating the odd rhythm on an electronic drum.

Meanwhile, providing vocal support were Emma Whittle and Valerie Chalmers; the two sisters first sang with ERASURE as far back as 1989 on the ‘Wild!’ tour. Experienced lungsmiths familiar with the ERASURE back catalogue and other variants of electronic pop, the pair were first spotted in Gary Numan’s backing band for his 1987 ‘Exhibition’ jaunt. Their chemistry with Andy Bell was highly apparent as they smiled and soared while regularly exchanging positions on the two sides of the stage, proving to acts like THE HUMAN LEAGUE that this very simple aspect of live presentation can actually be accomplished without too much effort!

‘Blue Savannah’ still sounded as emotive as ever despite the influx of club oriented beats. But its classic chord structure had the crowd singing the refrain during the extended intro before Bell sang a note. In other diversions, the influence of Vince Clarke’s VCMG project with Martin Gore made its presence felt on the new interpretation of ‘Chorus’. But as expected, ‘A Little Respect’ drew the biggest cheers before ERASURE finished a close-to-perfect evening with a house flavoured rendition of ‘Chains Of Love’.

For the encore, there was another surprise in a marvellous three-part acapella rendition of ‘Gaudete’ from the ‘Snow Globe’ collection. Originally made famous by STEELEYE SPAN, the traditional Latin carol held the audience’s attention before the inevitable ‘Sometimes’, ERASURE’s breakthrough hit from 1986 which still sounded fresh after 28 years.

“Thank you for coming out” said Bell cheekily before making his final exit to rapturous applause. In ‘The Violet Flame’ tour programme foreword, Mute supremo Daniel Miller quotes Seymour Stein of Sire Records who said “the reason ERASURE are so great is because they make people feel good about themselves”.

As everyone made their way home, the impromptu group sing-song of ‘A Little Respect’ on Platform 2 of Kentish Town Underground station was indeed proof of that.

‘The Violet Flame’ is released by Mute Artists on a variety of formats including CD, deluxe 2CD, boxset and download

ERASURE play New York’s Terminal 5 on 30th and 31st December 2014

http://www.erasureinfo.com/

https://www.facebook.com/erasureinfo

http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/erasure

Text by Chi Ming Lai
Photos from Brighton Centre show by Richard Price
17th December 2014

JOHN FOXX & STEVE D’AGOSTINO Live at BFI South Bank

26 November 2014 /
Photo by Rob Harris @ Metamatic

Photo by Rob Harris @ Metamatic

John Foxx and Steve D’Agostino supported by visual artist Karborn gave a live world premiere of their latest work ‘Evidence Of Time Travel’ for The British Film Institute as part of their ‘Sci-Fi: Days Of Fear & Wonder’ season at London’s South Bank.

Described as “a unique investigation of the terrors and pleasures of temporal displacement. A sinister sonic architecture of drum-machine-music and analogue synthesizers”, the stoic ‘Film One’ from the B-side of ‘Underpass’ is perhaps a good reference point to those more familiar with John Foxx’s song based work.

However, even that number sounds like a pop tune compared with much of the material that makes up ‘Evidence Of Time Travel’. Less immediate than its cousin and audio visual predecessor ‘B-Movie (Ballardian Video Neuronica)’, this live presentation put the work into context with Karborn’s cut-up images and specially filmed sequences providing an appropriate backdrop for a drum machine dominated soundtrack.

A well attended event, the audience appeared to fall into two distinct categories; the minority were youngsters who appeared to be film school students while judging by the sea of bald heads and grey hair, the majority were John Foxx enthusiasts, unsure if this was a gig or a movie. Whatever, a number couldn’t resist attempting to clap whenever the things went a bit silent as part of the show.

Photo by Chi Ming Lai

Photo by Chi Ming Lai

In some ways, this was very much a gig with Foxx positioned at the front doing octave shifts and attacking sweeps on his Roland workstation while D’Agostino handled an Organ Energizer semi-modular synthesizer, effects and electronic percussion. The addition of dialogue samples provided a distinct variation from the recorded version of ‘Evidence Of Time Travel’.

Meanwhile the wonderfully reverbed snakey Compurhythm CR-78 which provided the backbeat for the album was exploited to full surround effect in the theatre and still sounded very Sci-Fi despite a vintage of over 35 years.

‘Impenetrable Inevitable’ in particular came over like a futuristic crime thriller theme while ‘Collision Architecture’ had its haunting overtones enhanced further by a monochromatic screen test of a raven haired beauty broadcast in flickering UHF. The closing ‘Empty Clothing Blows Across a Beach’ provided a fittingly minimal but disturbing ambience, but its lengthy build and conclusion again confused those desperate to show a more conventional mode of appreciation after the 44 minute set.

A presentation such as this is tricky to pull off in a traditional pop art manner, certainly with the absence of vocals and lighting focussed on the performers. But ‘Evidence Of Time Travel’ successfully made sense with its accompanying visuals.

Anyone familiar with the films used during previous John Foxx live shows would have appreciated the tastefully collaged images of men in suits, Renaissance sculptures and distorted lines to go with the stark music.

With thanks to Steve Malins at Random PR and Rob Harris at Metamatic

‘Evidence Of Time Travel’ is available on CD and vinyl via Metamatic Records

www.metamatic.com

www.altersonicsound.com/stevedagostino

www.evidenceoftimetravel.com

www.karborn.com

www.bfi.org.uk

Text by Chi Ming Lai
26th November 2014

HEAVEN 17 + BLANCMANGE Live at Bedford Corn Exchange

15 November 2014 /

Following the success of their joint gig at Manchester Academy earlier this year, two of Synth Britannia’s best loved combos HEAVEN 17 and BLANCMANGE have been doing the rounds on ‘The Tour Of Synthetic Delights’.

In 1984, former HEAVEN 17 member Ian Craig Marsh declared to Smash Hits that BLANCMANGE were his favourite band while a link was first forged back in 1981 when Martyn Ware produced the demos that eventually got BLANCMANGE signed to London Records.

BLANCMANGE arrived on stage in their current live trio incarnation all clothed in lab coats with front man Neil Arthur staring at the crowd like an eccentric but cool university professor. Opening with ‘Game Above My Head’, he waved a telescopic inspection mirror like a golf club as if to substantiate the impression! The set comprised predominately of crowd pleasers such as ‘Blind Vision’ and ‘Don’t Tell Me’ while ‘Living On The Ceiling’ appeared midway through and was effectively turned into a terrace chant as the audience sang the main theme.

But best of all was an emotive ‘Waves’, now reworked and sounding even more like early OMD than ever before. A nod to BLANCMANGE’s most recent album ‘Blanc Burn’ came with the groovy ‘WDYF’. Meanwhile a charismatic Ian Curtis meets David Byrne intensity made its presence felt on blistering ‘Happy Families Too…’ versions of ‘I Can’t Explain’ and ‘Feel Me’. In all, it was a synthetic delight from the lean and mean Mr Arthur to warm up the evening’s proceedings.

HEAVEN 17 began their part of the bargain with ‘Circus Of Death’, an old HUMAN LEAGUE song from Martyn Ware’s days in the band. Always known for varying their setlists regularly with assorted League numbers and cover versions, one of the attractions of this particular H17 jaunt was the promise of new material, the first since 2005’s ‘Before After’.

On a likely direction, Martyn Ware said in May 2013: “it’s still in the birthing stage but I think we want to make it very electronic and stripped down… we always start off with this intention but it always ends up epic!!” In Spring 2014, Glenn Gregory added: “At the moment, it’s fairly loose… I’m doing that deliberately, the drum tracks are very basic and I’d say as guide, the tracks are more like the electronic side of ‘Penthouse & Pavement’ than ‘The Luxury Gap’ or ‘How Men Are’” – the first of the new tunes aired was ‘Illumination’.

An electro funk groove in the vein of ‘Penthouse And Pavement’ developed into a FULL FORCE / LISA LISA / CULT JAM romp. And with a fabulous Stylophone styled solo to boot, it was as if THE HUMAN LEAGUE’s ‘Crash’ album had gone right! The second new song ‘Pray’ began like early HUMAN LEAGUE, its metronomic avant first half transforming with slap bass runs and rhythm guitar via ’Young Americans’ era Bowie into that synth soul hybrid which HEAVEN 17 have been known and loved for.

Of course, the hits were present too like the still sadly relevant ‘(We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang’, ‘Let Me Go’ and ‘Come Live With Me’ plus a pleasant surprise in the newly revived 1984 ode to nuclear apocalypse ‘Sunset Now’. And the glamourous soul sistas Billie Godfrey and Rachel Mosleh gave their all to a wonderfully extended and exuberant ‘Temptation’… yes DEPECHE MODE, this is how to breathe new life into your best known song and it doesn’t involve tedious drum solos!

To finish, there was a cover of Bowie’s ‘Boys Keep Swinging’ with Ware adding some mad Eno-esque squelches via his Roland V-Synth. Meanwhile during ‘Being Boiled’, live keyboardist Berenice Scott maintained her position as “possibly the sexiest lady ever to have got behind a synthesizer” when she left her stand to almost come to the front of the stage with her Roland AX keytar and demonstrate the beauty of the synthesizer.

The Bedford leg of ‘The Tour Of Synthetic Delights’ was a fantastically entertaining evening that proved heritage events with key acts from the Synth Britannia era can be both nostalgic and credible if the line-up is right. Promoters take note… it doesn’t have to be a cheese fest like ‘Here & Now’!

HEAVEN 17 ‘Illumination’ b/w ‘Pray’ is available as a limited edition 12” vinyl single from www.heaven17.com

https://www.facebook.com/heaven17official

BLANCMANGE ‘Happy Families Too…’ and ‘Blanc Burn’ are available on CD from www.blancmange.co.uk

https://www.facebook.com/BlancmangeMusic

Text and Photos by Chi Ming Lai
15th November 2014

MUS_IIC Festival.01 Featuring WRANGLER, GAZELLE TWIN + MINNY POPS

23 October 2014 /

MUS_IIC-cover

MemeTune, the acclaimed London studio and label curated its first festival just down the road from its base in Hoxton at Shoreditch’s Red Gallery.

Although lacking in natural ventilation, the sociable art space proved to be a fine venue to host live electronic music with several luminaries from the music scene present including Hannah Peel, Serafina Steer, James Nice, Anais Neon, Martin Swan and err… Bobby Gillespie! Proceedings started at precisely 7.41pm with cult Dutch combo MINNY POPS who are probably best known for being signed to Factory Records and supporting JOY DIVISION at the notorious Bury gig in 1980 which ended in a riot.

Formed in 1978 and named after the 1967 Keio Minupops 7 rhythm box and not the dodgy children’s entertainment show produced by Mike Mansfield, it began with vocalist Wally van Middendorp standing in the audience, blindfolded and silent for what felt like 10 minutes before holding a placard which announced “FAC57 NOT FUC57… Secret Story revisited” and launching into the track itsellf.

It was all very art school and prolonged, but there appeared to be a glint of sly Low Countries humour lurking.

A new song ‘Patti Hurst’ followed as coruscating guitars, mournful string synths and the band’s trademark drum machine reverbed around the venue like INTERPOL trapped down a well.

Wally van Middendorp was charismatic if nothing else with his dead fly moves and deathly baritone… it all rather made JOY DIVISION sound like STEPS. With their early albums ‘Drastic Measures Drastic Movement’ and ‘Sparks In A Dark Roomm’ out now as 2CD deluxe packages via Factory Benelux, MINNY POPS’ polarising experimentation is being re-investigated by a new audience if nothing else.

With the level of the PA raised a notch, the rumbling sub bass caused part of the lighting rig to judder and drop off the front of the stage just before the fierce and uncompromising GAZELLE TWIN commenced her set. Sounding tune-based in comparison with MINNY POPS, GAZELLE TWIN aka Elizabeth Bernholz stalked the stage like a caged animal, occasionally dropping to her knees to (almost) worship her loop pedal.

MUS_IIC-GazelleTwin

In what was the most minimal of set-ups, a hooded programmer / sample player triggered and manipulated a tiny podium-based sample pad whilst Bernholz projected a completely asexual persona. With her facial features disguised with a sheer stocking mask and dressed in a deliberately unflattering hooded track suit tucked into a pair of sports socks, the cumulative effect was to focus the listener on the music.

Bernholz admits to being a nervous / anxious performer, donning a mask and anti-fashion dress code in an attempt to distance herself from the standard “LOOK AT ME!” stage persona – if anything, this unique approach makes GAZELLE TWIN even more voyeuristically watchable.

Unlike much current electronic music, there was very little common frames of reference here, songs from current album ‘Unflesh’ drifted into each other, shards of melody occasionally appearing, then disappearing and the vocal hook “It’s coming at me” of the album’s title track being the most memorable of the evening.

What impressed most was Bernholz’s vocal range and ability to switch into different styles, this combined with a charismatic stage presence meant that the Red Gallery crowd were held in rapture fully for the duration of their 40 minute set.

With the headline act WRANGLER approaching, it became apparent that most of the Red Gallery audience were here to see Stephen Mallinder’s new outfit as the crowd significantly filled out during the break after GAZELLE TWIN.

In the seminal ‘Made in Sheffield’ documentary, another former CABARET VOLTAIRE member Chris Watson ruminated as to what the ‘perfect Cabaret Voltaire performance’ would be, whether it was driving around Sheffield city centre in a van blaring out their music or even in a public toilet somewhere.

But tonight the Shoreditch venue with its superb sound system suited WRANGLER perfectly, the gloomy and arty ambience although initially intimidating, suiting the dark / dystopian sound of the band to a tee. On the left of the stage, John Foxx’s right hand man Benge spent most of the performance hammering away at a minimal twin pad drum synth whilst on the other side of a centrally placed Mallinder was Phil Winter who handled synths and MIDI controllers.

MUS_IIC-wrangler-by-EMP

With just one album under their collective belts, most of the evening material was taken up with tracks from ‘LA Spark’ with the title track, ‘Lava Land’ and a Kaoss Pad driven ‘Mus_IIC’ all getting strong outings. The biggest cheer of the evening was reserved for a faithful version of The Cabs’ ‘Sensoria’, the sequenced riffs and danceable drum patterns getting the crowd really moving.

What also impressed was the use of front screen projection onto a curtain in front of the act, the recognisable WRANGLER “W” logo and a variety of semi-3D computer graphics appeared to float hypnotically in front of the band during their hour set. Drawing the set to close, the final track of the night was a re-worked version of ‘Crackdown’.

Despite the dark nature of their material, Mallinder and the rest of WRANGLER seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves throughout and the combination of the diverse acts on the bill made this a perfect way to enjoy a Saturday nights electronic music. On the strength of tonight’s event, it can only be a matter of time before we get MUS_IIC Festival.02.

With thanks to Steve Malins at Random PR

WRANGLER ‘LA Spark’ is released by MemeTune

GAZELLE TWIN ‘Unflesh’ is released by Anti-Ghost Moon Ray / Last Gang

MINNY POPS ‘Drastic Measures Drastic Movement’ and ‘Sparks In A Dark Room’ are released by Factory Benelux

https://www.facebook.com/pages/We-Are-Wrangler/1389558817973207

http://www.gazelletwin.com/

http://minnypops.com/

http://memetune.net

Text and Photos by Chi Ming Lai and Paul Boddy
23rd October 2014

 

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2017 ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK | Email: [email protected]
Privacy Policy

Up ↑