Category: Live Reports (Page 35 of 36)

MARINA & THE DIAMONDS Live At The Roundhouse

15 November 2010 /


What a year so far it’s been so far for the kookily charming lungsmith who is Marina Lambrina Diamandis aka MARINA & THE DIAMONDS.

There’s been a top ten single with Hollywood and a gem of a debut album in ‘The Family Jewels’, produced largely by Liam Howe of SNEAKER PIMPS fame. This time last year, she had just sold out the Hoxton Kitchen as part of ‘Levi’s Ones To Watch’ showcase. Even before the current campaign, her appearance at the ‘New To Q’ concerts at the London Tabernacle in January provoked near hysteria, particularly among many of the female ‘Diamonds’ in the audience. A new star and role model was born; ultra-glamourous and beautiful while witty, intelligent and forthright all at the same time.

Since then, her live show has been expanded to include the entire album and the use of tasteful video projections. Christened ‘The Burger Queen Tour’, this is her most theatrical extravaganza yet. The instrumental filmic overture of STARSMITH’s electronic 24 Carat remix of ‘I Am Not A Robot’ sees Marina cast as a cat-suited Bond Girl in homage to Maurice Binder’s opening title sequences for the classic 007 movies.

She arrived on the stage of The Roundhouse to rapturous applause like Aphrodite, the Olympian Goddess of Love and Beauty, all dressed up to the nines in the most elegant full length black gown. Beginning with a stripped down neo-acapella take on the album’s iTunes only title track, an incessant bass sequence takes over to open proceedings proper with ‘The Outsider’.

Marina has improved very much as a live performer. Becoming more animated with assorted facial expressions and affecting arm gestures, her rhapsody was no more apparent than with the WAG baiting ‘Girls’.“Girls oh girls, wag your tails to the beat of girls aloud, oh the journos on heat” she sneers; “Write such good stories, oh their mothers must be proud… making money off your insecurity and doubt”. As with PINK’s ‘Stupid Girls’, Marina encourages the next generation to do something more in life instead of just getting your bits out for the lads!

Accompanied as usual by her backing band of Jon Shone (synths), Sebastian Sternberg (drums), Peter Carr (keyboards) and Dan Gulino (bass), interestingly there appears to be an increased element of electronics within the live set. The brilliantly angsty ‘Are You Satisfied?’ is turned into a mid-Atlantic synth rock number while ‘Shampain’, co-written with the ubiquitous Pascal Gabriel, appears to reveal a few Synth Britannia influences; could the chorus possibly be borrowing from GARY NUMAN’s Engineers and the glaring synth solo from OMD’s ‘International’? Whatever, Marina actually decides to briefly turn into SIMPLE MINDS with a “let me see your hands” and “singalong with me” moment… unlike Jim Kerr though, she keeps it to just the one song so things work out quite nicely without becoming irritating!

Of course, no MARINA & THE DIAMONDS set would be complete without the lost mini-symphony Seventeen while the lovely ‘I Am Not A Robot’ reveals Marina’s tremendous vulnerability. Dedicating it to her fans, it’s obviously the song that connects the most as all her Diamonds sing along with her. And there are many singalongs tonight; ‘Obsessions’ and ‘Numb’, which see Marina accompany herself on keyboards, are touching highlights that reveal the strength of her talent for quirky but memorable tunes.

Marina’s neo-operatic synesthetics and sudden octave changes (sometimes within the same word!) recall the eccentricity of classic SPARKS, none more so than on the barking mad Greg Kurstin collaboration ‘Oh No!’.

Using ounces of Fe-Mael intuition and aided by the technology available to accurately recreate its Bohemian tension live, this theatre certainly ain’t big enough for all of us as the blasting “I’m now becoming my own self-fulfilled prophecy! OH! OH NO! Oh No! OH NOO!… “ salvo almost takes everyone’s heads off!

There’s a nice surprise as Marina airs a new song Jealousy, a track that has previously been available on-line prior to her recent success and missed inclusion on ‘The Family Jewels’.

This unreleased nugget with its fantastic chorus and layers of synth strings is a promising sign of what could be to come with her next album. A combined love of pop and art is the key to MARINA & THE DIAMONDS. For her, Britney Spears and Andy Warhol are as important as PJ Harvey and Ancient Greece.

Coming up the home straight, The Dr Who Theme, GOLDFRAPP and KATE BUSH all merge together on the wonderfully wonky ‘Mowgli’s Road’ for the gathered to go “cuckoo” to before the widescreen drama of ‘Guilty’ closes the main part of the show.

For the encore, there’s an extended electronic dance workout before a quick costume change to represent “the mess that’s America” on the glitzy satire of ‘Hollywood’. A big blast of red, white and blue tickertape completes a superbly polished performance that presents ‘The Family Jewels’ in a fresh new light.

With her best show yet, it was a fine way to wind down a highly fruitful eighteen months.

As Marina herself said as she celebrated on her own website recently: “Diamonds, YOU DID IT… We won best UK act for EMA MTV Awards !!! A wonderful day for MARINA & THE DIAMONDS. We have triumphed. We are small- but strong!”

Marina, shine on you crazy diamond!

‘The Family Jewels’ is released by 670/Atlantic Records

www.marinaandthediamonds.com

Text by Chi Ming Lai
Photos by Richard Price
15th November 2010

GOLDFRAPP Live In London

10 November 2010 /

On a cold Autumn evening in a packed Hammersmith Apollo, something unusual was happening; Alison Goldfrapp was having fun!

The fairy godmother of modern electro has always cut a striking if static on-stage persona but tonight, it was if the thigh booted ice queen of yore had melted.

Like LADYTRON’s Mira Aroyo on their ‘Velocifero’ tour, Ms Goldfrapp totally loosened up, just as ERASURE’s Andy Bell once suggested she should.

So after a start which included darker, more artful selections like ‘Voicething’, ‘Crystalline Green’ and ‘You Never Know’, there was a breakout of smiles, dancing and even acknowledgements of the audience. While she has not turned into KYLIE MINOGUE, tonight saw a more relaxed and confident Alison Goldfrapp, someone who was now comfortable in their own aura.

There could be a variety of factors contributing to this but one almost certainly is the uptempo material from the ‘Head First’ album that dominates the middle part of this show. Tailor made for the sheer dynamics of live performance. A song like ‘Dreaming’ may be gorgeously layered Eurodisco, but the bouncy FM synth rock numbers ‘Alive’, ‘Believer’ and ‘I Wanna Life’ make the audience punch the air and join in the choruses.

‘Rocket’ is another case in point, a wonderful slice of Trans-Atlantic pop with Italo refrains a la LAURA BRANIGAN. The gorgeous middle eight is just angelic while the near lyrical banality of the chorus is utter genius.

Honorary Frappers Charlie Jones, Angie Pollock, Davide Rossi and new drummer Daisy Palmer all contribute a strong visual presence, with Pollock and Rossi taking to keytars in mock-VAN HALEN parody during this lively section of the show.

Rossi is a total musical all-rounder, swapping between violin, synths and guitar while Pollock backs up on keyboards and backing vox, looking every bit the glam vamp. Marching around the stage in neo-militaristic fashion, Ms Goldfrapp’s crazy curly locks billow in the artificial wind like some live action remake of the cult cartoon ‘Crystal Tipps & Alistair’ and her black tinsel-covered outfit does the same.

The glam era is very much at the root of the GOLDFRAPP aesthetic and even on the mid-paced material, this influence is prevalent. The fantastic ‘Number 1’ is a ROXY MUSIC number transported into the 21st Century, while the wonderful ABBA inspired singalong of ‘Head First’ would do Agnetha, Bjorn, Benny and Annifrid proud.

Throughout the set, the rhythm section remains rock solid. Jones, son of LED ZEPPELIN’s John-Paul cooly textures and jazzes up proceedings as appropriate on his bass while despite having a full acoustic kit at her disposal, Palmer sticks mostly to a punchy electronic percussion pad but comes to the fore when the power is needed.

An extended electronic work out of ‘Ride A White Horse’ meets the crowd’s approval while ‘Ooh La La’ and ‘Strict Machine’ are effectively turned full-blown T-REX tributes with as usual, the latter’s ‘We Are Glitter’ intro threatening to turn into RAH BAND’s ‘The Crunch’! And not forgetting ‘Train’, this doesn’t disappoint either as a filthy slice of Teutonic schaffel!

Indeed, the sheer volume is a pleasant surprise tonight. It even paradoxically helps the quieter numbers in the encore like ‘Black Cherry’ and the superb ‘Lovely Head’ with Ms Goldfrapp’s spine tingling electronically assisted banshee wails.

GOLDFRAPP gigs have often been too quiet in the past, thereby encouraging talking in the audience and provoking the culturally challenged who simply cannot get their heads around the more esoteric GOLDFRAPP material. This evening, the loudness sees them all thankfully silenced, even when she tackles these songs dressed like a Meringue!

Tonight, people saw the real Alison Goldfrapp, the girl with the Olivia Newton-John fixation.

If she had only performed the early B-side ‘UK Girls’ featuring its chorus lifted from ‘Physical’, then the circle would have been completed and everything would have been perfect. Other than that, it was GOLDFRAPP’s best ever live set. Despite all the flirtations with folk and film-noir, Ms Goldfrapp is actually a purveyor of some guilty pleasures.

‘Head First’ is released by Mute Records/EMI music

www.goldfrapp.com

Text by Chi Ming Lai
Photos by Richard Price
16th November 2010

MIRRORS Live at White Heat

15 July 2010 /

Madame Jojo’s in London’s Soho was the location for a headline show by the highly rated MIRRORS, courtesy of indie club night White Heat.

The Brighton quartet have been busy finishing their debut album which is to be released on Skint Records later this year and doing superb Un Autre Monde remixes of WHITE LIES’ ‘A Place To Hide’ and AU REVOIR SIMONE’s ‘Tell Me’.

Following their well-received support slot with DELPHIC earlier this year, they’ve also been honing their stage presentation to compliment their pop noir sound. One dictionary definition of mirror is: “A pattern for imitation; exemplar: a man who was the mirror of fashion. Something worthy of imitation”. So when MIRRORS take to the stage tonight, they look like ‘Organisation’- era ORCHESTRAL MANOEUVRES IN THE DARK beamed into the 21st Century.

Reflecting a sense of intelligent European modernism, the quartet arrive in stylish suits and thin ties to a industrialised stage set of alloy spaceframe structures housing all the incumbent technology. Some beautifully arty film projections enhance the image. MIRRORS “are attentive to minutiae”.

Consisting of James (lead vocals, synths), Ally (synths and backing vocals), Tate (synths) and Josef (electronic percussion), they open with ‘Fear Of Drowning’, its pulsing sequences and dense sweeping chords benefit from the loudness to take full hypnotic effect. It sounds magnificent. MIRRORS “are minimally over the top”.

New single ‘Ways To An End’ has a synthetic TALKING HEADS tribal flavour with a touch of THE HORRORS. James possesses a vibrant stage presence that matches his enthusiasm. He’s like a cross between the dancing Geography teacher of Andy McCluskey and the science student at the Vicarage tea party of Paul Humphreys. Could he actually be their love child? Maybe things went further in that plush sports car after the end of the Souvenir video? MIRRORS “are a vehicle for refraction”.

The mournful ‘Organ Song’ follows before the band launch into the brilliant ‘Into The Heart’. The audience reaction is certainly something to see; a young discerning music crowd, male and female, dancing away passionately just like in the early days of ORCHESTRAL MANOEUVRES IN THE DARK… none of this arms folded sitting still at the front nonsense that has blighted some of the more recent shows of Wirral’s finest!

James laps it all up along with co-front man Ally. Tate though pensively keeps control at the back while Josef stands almost motionless as a sticksman in the KRAFTWERK stand-up tradition. He looks like he could be the younger electro version of BLONDIE’s drummer Clem Burke. MIRRORS “follow the straightest of lines”.

And in a sharply impressive but short set, they finish with the pure Vince Clarke-era DEPECHE MODE of ‘Searching In The Wilderness’ and the wonderfully melancholic grandeur of ‘Hide & Seek’. It climaxes with the foursome leaving the stage to a repeated drum machine pattern just like ORCHESTRAL MANOEUVRES IN THE DARK used to do with ‘Enola Gay’.

Breathing new life into the classic ‘Synth Britannia’ blueprint, MIRRORS are synthly the best band to have come out of the UK for many years.

MIRRORS “are parallel to everything and equal to nothing.”

Special thanks to Debbie Ball at Create Spark

MIRRORS play: London Proud Galleries (July 31), Glasgow King Tuts Wah Wah Hut (August 2), Leeds Oporto (August 3), Sheffield Forum (August 4), Leicester Musician (August 5), Little London Fields (August 7), Birmingham Sound Bar (August 13), London Lexington (August 18), Bristol Start The Bus (August 20), York Basement (August 21), Brighton Audio (August 28)

https://www.facebook.com/theworldofmirrors/

Text by Chi Ming Lai
Photos by Richard Price
15th July 2010

AU REVOIR SIMONE Live at The Scala

18 June 2010 /

Brooklyn’s AU REVOIR SIMONE are the type of sweet studious girls who you’d expect to be pouring over their latest thesis in the college library.

This overt bookish intelligence only enhances what is already a terrifically understated sexy appeal that comes with their music. They started out when Erika Forster and Annie Hart exchanged stories and ambitions on a train journey home only to discover that they had a common desire to form an all-keyboard band to play synthetic covers of songs they adored from their youth.

One of these was Rod Stewart’s ‘Young Turks’ which they revisited in 2008 and turned into a stonking electronic dance version in collaboration with THE DISCO PUSHER. Heather D’Angelo joined later and they started playing shows in New York and Brooklyn.

They made their recorded debut in 2005 with the release of a mini-album ‘Verses of Comfort Assurance & Salvation’. Their subsequent albums ‘The Bird Of Music’ in 2007 and last year’s ‘Still Night, Still Light’ on Moshi Moshi Records have attained critical acclaim and a host of admirers. Their most famous fan is ‘Twin Peaks’ director David Lynch while indie dance band FRIENDLY FIRES asked them to provide lead vocals for the excellent if slightly overlong AEROPLANE Remix of ‘Paris’.

AU REVOIR SIMONE’s instrumentation has manifested their sound. “It seemed like something fun for us to do – to celebrate the keyboard” recalls Erika. Annie said: “Our inspiration comes from the sounds that the keyboards make, that’s what made us start playing them in the first place”.

They’ve already stated their main influences as being Casio, Roland, Korg, Alesis, Rhythm Ace, Univox, Yamaha, Nord and Suzuki. Heather added: “We used to get some overly opinionated people say you guys need a drummer but not so much now…”

And tonight, a dedicated sticksman is still thankfully absent as the girls played a rare UK show at London’s Scala. Opening with the beautiful single ‘Another Likely Story’, this is best way to be introduced to their manifesto of making “warm and organic electronic music with forthright female vocalists”.

In keeping with their girl next door aura, the trio are simply charm personified. Annie in particular is very talkative and animated, announcing she is several weeks pregnant.

She recalled how only seven people came to their debut London show and that on that occasion, they had not yet mastered using the memory patches on their drum machine. This meant recording rhythms onto an iPod with set gaps pre-arranged between songs that tried the patience of the few people that had come to see them! “Get off” someone apparently shouted! They thought they’d never play London again!

Tonight on their return though, their drum machine is conquered and eloquently controlled with a drumstick by Heather who doesn’t look totally unlike a young Sophie Sarigiannidou from MARSHEAUX.

Meanwhile, the newly blonde Erika adds simplistic bass guitar to her instrumentation and joins in the cheerful banter which at times becomes like a keyboard slumber party. AU REVOIR SIMONE’s sense of humour is quite apparent as their amusingly unfortunate acronym is written all over their gear!

‘Sad Song’, the stand out track from ‘The Bird Of Music’ sees Annie leave her Casiotone and Roland Juno 106 to venture stage right to percussively stomp on a flight case before the set focuses almost entirely on ‘Still Night, Still Light’#.

The gorgeous repeated Farfisa-like riffs, ringing counter melodies and vocal harmonies all melt together in a trancey unison. With the girls all taking turns at lead vocals, various bits of percussion and each other’s synths, they work together well as a cohesive unit. This provides an almost uniquely human and feminine touch when operating all the incumbent machinery, there’s not a laptop in sight.

Tracks played tonight such as ‘Shadows’, ‘Only You Can Make You Happy’ and ‘Trace A Line’ are fairly representative of AU REVOIR SIMONE’s laid back output. While the chilled-out electronic atmospheres they create recall Gallic sonic architects like AIR and STEREOLAB, their songwriting style probably has more in common with the subtle melodies of instrumentally conventional acts such as CAMERA OBSCURA who they have previously supported.

‘The Last One’ is described by Annie as “psychedelic” and the triple keyboard action allows the progressive nature of its hallucinogenic effect to take hold of the audience. The fantastic ‘Knights Of Wands’ and ‘Anywhere You Looked’ see them up speed things up a bit to get some of the biggest cheers of the night. As an encore, AU REVOIR SIMONE return to their roots to deliver a superb cover of DON HENLEY’s ‘The Boys of Summer’. “Sing along if you know it” shouted Erika! “but DON’T SING if you don’t!” retorted Annie!

An enjoyably still night, if a little bit too downtempo at times during a mid-section lull. This dreamy folktronica is electronic pop music, but perhaps not as we know it!

AU REVOIR SIMONE’s new remix album ‘Night Light’ is released by Moshi Moshi Records on 5th July 2010

http://aurevoirsimone.com/

www.myspace.com/aurevoirsimone

Text by Chi Ming Lai
Photos by Richard Price
18th June 2010

JOHN FOXX Live at The Roundhouse

7 June 2010 /


Coinciding with the release of his latest 3CD collection ‘Metatronic’ and as part of Short Circuit 2010; an evening celebrating the best of British electronic music, JOHN FOXX headlined a special analogue synthesizer show to mark his 30th anniversary as a solo artist.

His solo debut ‘Metamatic’ was released in early 1980 and this mechanised electro classic has been acknowledged by artists such as APHEX TWIN, TIM SIMENON and THE KLAXONS as an inspiration. JOHN FOXX recently said himself: “There’s a great surge of interest in electronic music. I don’t know why that’s happened, but it’s fortunate for me because I did it a long time ago”

ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK happened to be present for his first solo show at Hitchin Regal during October 1983. But on that occasion, JOHN FOXX appeared to have gone back to guitars, so much so that the entire ‘Metamatic’ album was omitted in a near Stalinist rewrite of history! He did however play songs from his ULTRAVOX repertoire, a body of work that influenced the young GARY NUMAN, contributing to his major success in 1979 with ‘Replicas’ and ‘The Pleasure Principle’.

But tonight couldn’t have been more different as Foxx and an ensemble of special guests: Benge (synthesizers, percussion and bass), Steve D’Agostino (synths); Serafina Steer (synths); Jean-Gabriel Becker (synths and bass); and Liam Hutton (drums and percussion) took to the stage to perform material from the ‘Metamatic’ era AND a selection of ULTRAVOX material.

Also featured in themed episodes were songs with LOUIS GORDON and new material under the moniker of JOHN FOXX & THE MATHS.

Prior to the main event, there was DJ sets by JORI HULKKONEN who finished his selection with his proteges VILLA NAH’s own ‘Ways To Be’ and Back to The Phuture’s Mark Jones who played a very electronic set ranging from THE NORMAL, CABARET VOLTAIRE and FAD GADGET to TUBEWAY ARMY, OMD and SOFT CELL. One pleasant surprise was the massive roar of approval that greeted the bleepy pulses of cult classic ‘Lawnchairs’ by OUR DAUGHTERS WEDDING, a sign that the crowd knew their synthesizer history.

To start the show, there was an overture consisting of ‘Parallel Lives’, a cut-up film of Alex Proyas’ ‘Groping’ soundtracked by a 21st Century take on ‘Underpass’ B-side ‘Film One’.

Using the machines that created the sound of the future such as the Minimoog, ARP Odyssey, Roland CR-78, Korg 700 and Roland System 100, the band took their positions but there was a lengthy silence before Foxx arrived on stage to open with ‘Plaza’. Sounding magnificent and full of body, its JG Ballard inspired line “I remember your face from some shattered windscreen” still resonates in this man machine love affair.

Accompanied by VJs Jonathan Barnbrook and Karborn stark filmic visuals throughout the show, B-side ‘This City’ comes next before an outstanding ‘Burning Car’. Taking on a hauntingly eerie significance, it recalls the autobiographical tale of an accident where everyone except the young Dennis Leigh was killed.

The analogue goodness continued with excellent run throughs of ‘No-One Driving’ and ‘He’s a Liquid’ before ending the first episode with ‘Underpass’. Unfortunately, this classic is ruined by heavy speaker distortion and is something that would intermittently ruin several tracks played this evening.

The band then vacated the stage for Foxx’s regular musical partner LOUIS GORDON to join him for three songs. Arriving to a big cheer, Gordon has to be the most enthusiastically intense synth player since Billy Currie. Bouncing around behind his keyboards, he was the total antithesis of FOXX’s largely static and cool stage persona. What they play is noisy and percussive; ‘Shadow Man’ is almost mutant EBM while ‘An Ocean We Can Breathe’ can only be described as metadelic, like an electronic version of The Fab Four’s ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’.

The band returned to play THE MATHS set for what became a very hit ‘n’ miss section of the show. The best track was a song co-written with Mira Aroyo of LADYTRON called ‘Watching A Building On Fire’. Sung with Mira on the record but voiced totally by Foxx tonight, its chattering drum machine and accessible melodies make it stand out among the variable quality of new material that is showcased. Playing anything brand new live is difficult at the best of times but the crowd were beginning to get agitated, polite applause only greeting most of the finales. So when former ULTRAVOX guitarist Robin Simon took to the stage, everyone knew it was time for some more classic material and many who had slowly disappeared for a comfort break mid-show made a surge to the front.

The seminal songs from the ‘Systems Of Romance’ album ‘Dislocation’, ‘Quiet Men’ and a superb ‘Slow Motion’ got the gig back on track to provide the end to the evening and probably got the biggest receptions of the night. Two encores followed which included a tremendous GIORGIO MORODER-esque re-working of ‘The Man Who Dies Everyday’ and the wonderfully beautiful ‘Just For A Moment’.

The evening was concluded with a DJ set from GARY NUMAN and ADE FENTON. The pull of a celebrity DJ is for all to see as half the audience remain in The Roundhouse to see Numan on his iPad with Fenton rather than leaving to beat the rush! Mixing in sections of KRAFTWERK and DEPECHE MODE to a set that included NEW ORDER’s ‘Blue Monday’ and BASEMENT JAXX’s ‘M.E.’ sampling ‘Where’s Your Head At?’, this is a sideline that provokes interest and attention from the plethora of Numanoids that have gathered.

In all, an evening of mixed emotions but all due credit to JOHN FOXX for being willing to celebrate his history while still having the motivation and aptitude to produce new material that is still both innovative and challenging.

‘Metatronic’ is released by Edsel Records

www.metamatic.com

www.thequietman.co.uk

Text by Chi Ming Lai
Photos by Richard Price
7th June 2010

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