Category: SOG-BLOG

This is what we do

Posted on by Spirit of Gravity

February 2025
The Rossi Bar

Purely because of the logistics of fitting his drums and electronics on the small stage we start the evening off with perennial favourite Dale Frost playing a largely new set. The first song starts with vision On chimes ping in counter rhythms before the punchy drums kick in around them, a complementary beat. A mesh. There’s a couple of nice isolated drum breaks just before the chimes come back in. The second song is much more staccato, backing track with partial rhythms, drums filling some more. The occasional proper sub bass. The jigsaw nearly complete. About halfway through the song a pad comes in that seems to add completeness, but it still feels oddly half time. The third comes on like some oddly time-signatured dub track – the “delayed” piano then de-coupling itself to emphasise the off kilter beat. Flurries of hi-hat, weird percussive squeaks. Then a super slow bass note/bass drum gives it some bottom and possibly bringing it briefly back into 4/4 before it all goes a bit loopy again and speeds right up. The fourth starts with a slurred synth that is then triggered by the drums. Big bubbly synths surround it before we get a rattly snare heralding another tricky rhythm. Theres some great bits in this one as things drop in to come back in including a particularly delirious section of the bubbly synth and rhythms all working around each other before the drums stop and the synth spirals off into the heavens. Dale seems to be priming the synths and pads before this final track starts, then it kicks off with a walking bass and hi-hat stalking drums. After a while there’s some steel pan melody driving it on. We get some breaks to emphasise the synthiness before it all lifts off into D’n’B flight, the bass stretching, steel pans lifting higher and higher, another drop then it’s back into flight again, the drums doubling up in intensity, more counter melodies, back briefly to the original version, a grounding. A slow plod into an organ-tastic breather and then back into full throttle for the end.

In the middle slot we had Whitstable’s Sophie Sirota on viola and effects. She starts with some long notes drawn into new synthesiser shapes by the effects warping away, some plucked strings into decaying delay and the drawn bow alternating feeding into detailed layers of shifting something. Occasionally a tear of screaming distortion, a mutating murky backdrop of delay gives us a bed on which the rest of the first song is constructed, the way the main melodic part of the track warps from nylon to total artifice as the notes develop. With that main line going on she fills some trembling background into the looper before playing a longer melodic line against the first using the range of the instrument from whistling highs to almost cello-like swirling lows. The background swirls have mutated into ghastly whispers by now, she plays through the long melodic line again, but with delays spiralling sounds off it in all directions skilfully skirting feedback hitting that psychedelic sweet spot quite nicely. The second piece starts with the bow bouncing on the strings, feeding into the looper notes, clicks, laying down a bedrock. A succession of drawn single notes is fed into the looper as well, a second layer to slowly develop an overlapping chord. Its pretty static, some more unobtrusive layers sliding in, ghostly. That distortion that we heard briefly before is back, needle sharp. The repetition builds intensity until her lead line slowly emerges from the fog, melancholic & nostalgic before slowly letting the framing lines fall away from under it until all we’re let with is the pinging original rhythm line, choirs of angels and the viola’s melodic line and then it to is gone, dropping down to just the voice to end.

All electronic, Nanonic swirls in with a contact pad synth of extensive tonalities, some blistering swirls and deep, deep subs off into churning delay. Ghostly wails, hard whistling winds. Drops to beeps or lonesome foghorns. Distant gunshot snares herald a regular pulse and a frankly terrifying sub bass drone. A rhythm seems to coalesce, rattling chains envelop us, a bass line forms, other synth lines force their way in. cymbals, slurring delays. That aeroplane arpeggiator from dark side of the moon. Everything stalls. A distant door slams. Silence. The second piece starts with a slurring synth injected directly into a delay for maximum entertainment. Detailed layers of sound course out over us, spaceships shifting from some interstellar portal, Nick manages to evoke both 50s SF film soundtracks and the latest space music. Atonal beeps then shift us into a more structured (if seemingly semi randomly) segment that then leads into a pretty fast pulse beat. A great red noise snare sound. The rhythm disintegrates before our ears. The final piece is straight into the rhythm, a ticking of stick on metal hi-hat style, with rasping synths and pinging bass lines. Interlocking bass lines. Interlocking detuned synth noises. Delay chatter, a bass drum with a distinctly dancehall gait about its swing, if not the tempo. Some Cabs style reverb distortion, this could be something off a 21st Century Red Mecca. Everything here is in thrall to the rhythm. It ends with endless layering up, shrieks, machine thrums, feedback. Highlight. Nice.



Repetition not art

Posted on by Spirit of Gravity

January 2025
The Rossi Bar

Starting the year with a drone we have McCloud+1 start with a sequence bouncing out of the Fort Processor Geoff flicking a torch across the its light detector for more or less subtle modulations, winds coming from the Casio slowly coming up, Lou sitting onstage backwards, out of site mustering half audibly in and out of earshot; “Change the noise” and a push of a button brings in a different Casio sound the taped down keys keeping the drone going. The Fort Processor starts to bite deep as do the winds, then flashing round the knobs brings a harsh noise element then wailing off into feedback. “Laughing Out Loud”. A two note bass drone sequence makes itself audible through the squall. Lou’s voice all but submerged. Bass drum steals in, and gone, back again, Hi-hat, delayed claps bounce around the room. Head nods, McCloud is off for a drink, hood up. We can hear the words again, the bass and beats integrate into something “Change The Noise” – again the Casio drones switch. Then down to just the bass and bass drum. A cavernous reverb for the bass drum to lose itself. Snare now bouncing around our heads, then out again for the hi-hat. A drum pattern is lost. “No borders”, The missing pattern is rebuilt when it comes round eventually again and again. Gurgling in comes the noise synth again, Pulsating with bass heaviness that drives the beats away. The winds are back, a flurry then a very nasty biting noise and foghorn drones nautically come in against the continuing wind and mess with it, ending in a thin whining drill that toys with idea of forming into notes then squeals off again into grating machine noise, a new droning bassline comes in eventually. To be matched by a head whacking dancehall bass drum and hard snare. There’s some playing with the resonance on the bass synth to get a counterpointing beep and whistle to the bassline, very much trying to channel Higashi Hiroshi’s delirious swoops from “Pink lady Lemonade”, there’s some nice pinging as the sweet spot on the filter is hit. Lou’s voice still coming in and out, half heard dream words. The clap unobtrusively chugging in the background then slowly steaming full into awareness, the bass drum gone, swooping continuing now all gone apart from the steam and the swoop…

Nuclear Whale next, starting with a different wind and an audible warning bell, delayed swoops of modular synth wash across the foreground, it’s like an escape from an alien internment camp, The Grey Area in audio form. A beeping sequence across bass booms, everything shifting relativistically; space burbles and melancholic Carpenter melodies. A slow drum steals in against the beeps the bass drum shifts from the fours to a lopsided stutter across the bars, the beeps start to vibrate and shimmer, I can hear a church bell in the distance. They always remind me of Rowan. We’re just down to the aliens interrogating the church organ – the bell puts up a struggle but is overwhelmed and lost. The country chapel fills with the green folk, a stone tape memory of a beat tries assert itself against the new congregation, there’s a pinging in the apse, muttering in the nave, everything indistinct and muted, filtering away until a springy synth emerges to bring us an insectoid interlude and the Tibetan monks in the monastery next door start to do their stuff. But they’re mutating too, buzzing, the chrysalids chirrup and chilling winds push us all outside. The fields flatten and the skies yellow, time slows. Vast doors open and we’re pulled into the vortex. Everything expands, everything thrums ecstatically. I try not to look at the vast churning machines, the jet engines roaring, machine saws going about their infernal work. Beeping at last brings some relief, but the machines are taking flight against the workshop’s giant automatons. Carpenter-esque arpeggios from the chapel organ invoke nightmare melodies that grow and envelop us in their dark embrace. A squelching Lovecraftian march in place of a beat, that dissolves actually into a beat, the alien-ness recedes. And sanity prevails. At least, that’s what happened to me.

And finally…. Its Lekomo, Lee’s first set at The Spirit of Gravity and we can’t believe that. He’s usually to be found running the monthly Sunday Machine nights at The Brunswick. But this Thursday he’s standing tall behind a speaker balanced on the usual low coffee tables at The Rossi with his Teenage Synths device perched on top. And it’s off to a thunderous start Lee nonchalantly boshes in a monster staccato unison bass and kick pattern, a counter patter of noise slices in and morphs into a bassline, the same noise slides in again, but this time continues to slip around the beat. He’s pretty dynamic with the mix, things dropping in and out slurs and tight repeats. The second piece starts with a monster continuous bass, and a pounding that runs and stops, runs and stops. “Agony, fear, Pain” switches to 4 to the floor, then back to the pounding. And so on. Its all very big a bit like Lee. Some squelching and grinding works its way into the mix. And before you know there’s a kettle whistle melody wormed its way into things as well. Just when you have a grip on it you realise the bassline is a slow 50Hz pulse shorting out your mental processing. The next track is all in, ticking toms, slow kick, lopsided bass whoosh line, some vocal indistinctness telling you what’s right, the bassline is supplemented by a lower level flapping bass tone that dries the speakers a bit wild. More energetic ticking. Its all a bit relentless now. Slippery, too. Is that Click or kick on the 8s? the its pitchshifting all over. It’s a kick in the head up to 16s, back to 8s. the bass is suddenly proper loud. “You will know I was written to delete you”. There’s something Carpenter-ish about the atmosphere. A brief return to the first track then industrial strength circular saw, train whee drums, something mot quite like a crunching guitar riff, hom, hom,    hom, hom,    hom, hom. Lee starts to wobble and we get a faster kick, a proper full on buzzing saw-tooth bass, he seems to programming something on the fly, a clacking slap round the head, 8 to the floor. Bassline like a Space Liner slipping past fast. Then on to another, and another the return of the circular saw, the trains, the trains… The next starts with an old hardcore riff, pounding gabba speed kicks and keeps running like that for a while. It keeps dropping down to the kicks, deliriously, it’s like having the prince of darkness biffing you upside the head. A tease to finish that one, and then a slow down for the final track. A slower bassline on the 8s, saw riff again, all lopsided this time. A clopping slow beat comes in, other percussion scatters and stammers around it. A bass counter point to the saw riff, it’s a hypnotic, pulsating ends to the set. We wobble and throb. Lee beeps in response. Sound effect techno.



There’s a really strange noise coming over the speaker

Posted on by Spirit of Gravity

December 2024
The Rossi Bar

To start the evening is Resting Pulse with some space dialogue, that whirrs off into delay then a slow uneven lurching beat with a bassline to match. Half bass half whistle, it’s possibly the same sound pitched across several octaves. The beat is a grating machine through a warehouse door. It’s constantly changing, not really evolving, but the lumpiness is shifting enough to keep the ear engaged. Eventually a grind comes in, some more dialogue, back to the beat, then drops to just the dialogue again the beat comes back warped. The machine takes control, briefly, then the doors slide ominously open. We can hear large machines working off in the reverb-y distance, space scrapes rhythm akin to the lift from “Are You Being Served”, scrapes and clicks. This does have the feel of vastness. The bass is an enormous and vague booming. A reversing alarm finishes that piece off. Or does it start the next one – a bass drum! Or at least, an occasional bass drum, with a simultaneous but open bass. Mid-range warps of caught machine saw. The bass flattens out in a something between a shifting drone and a bassline, it’s very sonic. There’s something of a melodic string synth line that unwinds into view before disappearing back into the void along with everything apart from the bass. A more insistent bass drum breaks in to herald the string synth’s return. Some huge stapling machine brings its own beat and the bass starts spiralling into itself. There’s a drop away to the reversing alarm again, some murky airport announcement, everything slows and unravels.

Melinda Bronstein next, reverbed toy drum looped, Casio (ah, joy) looped bassline and vaguely Telstar flourish, layered to something else, then suddenly all slowed down to ominous levels. Melinda sings, heavily delayed through one of her twin mics. Shaking shells again pitched down to a clanking rattle. “Strange Information”. The next starts with a Casio piano part, overlaid with a more synth-y bass noise, and a creepy whistling line. Possibly “Every time you go” judging by the vocals. A scurrying pan pipe solo breaks it up, the vocals return. The phone drops to the floor. A shake-y egg starts the third song, off into one of the loopers, the mysterious metal pyramid provides the percussion it’s a big sound from what looks like an M&S Xmas biscuit tin. Then reversed and joined by Casio bassline, another found object provides the clinking percussion sound then again it’s all suddenly dropped in pitch to a scary level. A 70s sugar bowl chimed with an afro comb, and the shaky nuts return, vocals occasionally double up. There’s a note in the bassline of the next song that makes the speakers rattle. A drone off the Casio, layered up humming, the main vocal line is wordless to start, the drones seem to become more malevolent as the song progresses. Everything drops away apart from the voices, she adds more layers to them and brings the bass back in, chains drop between the stainless sugar bowls, providing a stately rhythm that’s all that’s left at the end. It’s great to listen to, but special to watch.

Martin Chick for finish, modular-ed up, starting with block of bass-y noise, a bit of filter and bloop, then some harsh noise wall, by turns percussive, then glitch-y until we can feel a bassline forming behind the randomness and the noise gathers itself then winds down into delay feedback and we can really feel that sub bass. A rave alarm and 160ish bass drum starts knocking, typewriter drums clack away, the noise drops. Mostly. The bass filters up and some beeping begins. There quite some malarkey with the bass line morphing up and down in and out until it gets a right buzz on it. There’s some nasty noise line that crashes in and something that whirrs off as a monster new bass overpowers everything and drops away again, leaving this wandering synth line that ambulates away for a while then the drums are back, overloading something. One note bass (a personal favourite) heralds a change of beat. Everything gets a bit abstract, all the synths confused. And then it’s all stripped down to the beat, squeals of screaming noise punctuate proceedings bringing in a wildly morphing bassline like something from the days before hardcore codified. This rides away for a while, eventually joined by a slapping snare, the bassline chopped, and another dropped in beneath it. A sine tone hits a Brazilian whistle percussion line, the drums get all Masters at Work for a while, but the synth heads off for radiophonic-land. Back to the beat. There’s some filtering happening on the drums now and it all gets very loud and the instruments lose their shape and then gain them again back to the beat. This time he sets them off into some very grainy territory, a place of grey pointillism, the beat slows; disintegrates then speeds right up into chaos levels, delay swirls flail about, squalls of trebly noise trail off, the beat tries to bludgeon back but fails and stop.



There is no pilot in the plane

Posted on by Spirit of Gravity

November 2024
The Rossi Bar

We begin the evening with a stunning set from Marina Moore, her kit is all set up at floor level, definitely a looper, possibly a laptop and some effects. She definitely has visible her violin, from which she throws a trembling fluttering part into the looper, over this she plays an almost cello like deeper melodic line. A scuttling arpeggiating synth line swoops out from somewhere, a plucked motif, and then she drops out of sight to the floor and starts singing through a distorting mic and some interesting feeding back delay. There are two synth lines swirling around each other. Three. Some waves. Then she insouciantly tosses off some fiddle flourishes into the looper and gets back to the serious melodic violin lines. The synth arpeggios are punctuation, I see. The next piece starts with a slower mellow plucked violin loop, layered up a bit, slower deeper lines added then some more distorted singing. More and more layers of violin going in as she progresses through the song. This time the vocals get looped, the lead violin line quite low in the mix. A nice buzzing sees us out. The arpeggios lead us into the next song with a high long, long melodic loop and some impressively proper low end loops from the violin. The long loop has a counter melody that comes back in and out of time with it. Delay fun whirrs its way around everything quite satisfactorily. Its beautifully haunting. The next one starts with a lightly strummed loop, shorter loops are spun in and Marina’s voice is in a much higher register this time. The final song has a disturbing shifting slurred rhythmic part all nasty overtones and distress, over this a frenetic flurries of notes, and slow detuned strides, its overwrought & melodramatic redolent of mists and black and white denouements, a superfast drum machine kicks in quite unexpectedly, the arpeggios are back fast and distressing and the delay adds an edge of chaos and its done. Wow. Brilliant.

It’s a cracking start to a cracking evening, as it turns out.

Certainly, it was a tough set to follow, but fortunately we had Les Biologistes Marins up next. A duo, Beatrice on flute and electronics, Anton on synth and electronics. Starting with hums, blown flute – which is to say, the sound of blowing wind through the flute rather than the expected blown notes – sea-like unsurprisingly perhaps. As this builds in intensity, we get a foghorn, abstract noises, an indistinct pulse. Field recordings of waves. The pulse takes on a humming aspect, the foghorn becomes churchlike organ.  Station bells. The distance offers chimes, train scrapes. And we get the first massive drone of sub bass. Alien radio signals static through the detuning organ tones. The organ parts settle into a drone, a pecked bass line and slurring upper part. They also sing, both of them Anton lost in a reverb-y distance meshing with Beatrice’s pure and tremulous wordless vocals in the foreground. The static takes on a squealing aspect and a synth-y shimmery metal scrape slips into view. We find ourselves with just the organ’s left hand without having noticed, and the flute is back, whistles and lingering notes. We hear a watery cave, waves slurping at its edges. The flute takes runs, the organ notes now slower and finally droning and gone into something slipperier. A thin drone takes us away from the flute deeper into the aquatic cave, rattles of metallic objects, a monk singing(?[!]), that static still going. Whistling. That male voice still lurking in the background. Beatrice’s voice warmer in the foreground still, unexpectedly and briefly reminding me of Low. Bea doubles up her voice with another deeper into the depths. Bottle clinks. More. Into layers. Clanks even. Marker buoys tolling in the cave mouth. A two note keyboard riff, reverb-y squelches. That static – still! Humming slides unobtrusively into flute, the two note riff is cuckooed on different sounds. The bass part expands to a 4 note arpeggio, with a strong flute part over it. The flute switches to a repeated much higher part reflecting the bassline, playing variations around it. Without doing much in the way of actually changing the sounds seems to get much bigger, clear of reverb out into the sunshine, a sudden increase in tempo until its all a flurry and done. A very different journey, but completely mesmerising.

And to see off the evening the dressing gowned Manu Louis in a robe, a borrowed fluffy of many colours. It’s kind of incongruous with my Vox guitar on its second outing of the year/decade wrapped around it. He’s got a couple of keyboards he plays Rick Wakeman style as well as the guitar and a laptop I think, I can’t quite see. The first song starts, a jerky new wavy rhythm, stopping starting, buzzing, Manu sings, there’s a nasty noise for a breakdown, with a guitar solo tossed off with a similar flourish to Marina’s violin playing earlier. I don’t think that kind of guitar solos ever been played on that guitar before. Second song (“Internet”) has a nice detuning synth riff reminiscent of Meronomy’s set for us. Manu sings this one in French. The sound of the synth constantly rotates, now boops, now squelches. Manu gets quite worked up. He also dances. Third starts with a jazzy drum part, a similar Casio-ish sound plays the riff. Third starts off fairly minimal, singing over drums and a light pad. Eventually a lately bass drops in. This one has a definite cabaret feel, probably the French lyrics again. The third song is “The Stream”, it has an interactive dance, Belgian dancing at that. A skipping bass drum and a count of four, then a buzzing arpeggio bassline and silly noises, very Yello. Interesting; my references are very 80s for this, but it sounds really modern. It has a really warped out middle 8 and some very nice grooves. The 4th song is “Documents” and is new, some very silly synth lines over a very serious backbeat, pumping bass and a glorious nasty buzz-saw whine. The final song also has an interactive dance, and starts with polka style stabs, and some excessively fierce guitar runs. Key changes! And a hint of the Shadows. After the first chorus the rhythm steps up a notch as does the guitar. Everything gets more intense. The second chorus and then a breakdown. Into a reedy jazz organ. More percussion into the mix. The third chorus to maximise the frenzy and end.

It’s “Documents” that fills my head as I head for the bus.