Category: SOG-BLOG

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.



Denuded by birth

Posted on by Spirit of Gravity

October 2024
The Rossi Bar

Starting the evening off one member down, but not unexpectedly was Altamode. Starting with slow dancehall beats and warm gently oscillating arpeggios Monty alone; shaded and gum chewing in a “Vroom Vroom” tee, did sterling work. A flurry of feedback delay and a voice starts in. next track starts with an unwinding bass and occasional square blasts of noise. Bells chime in. Monty works away at laptop and modular. The bells climb and carillon into a descending delay. The bassline completely unravels into parp and flap dropping almost out of hearing. More words from the laptop, threatening. The noise blasts mutate slowly into a second stentorian bassline. The chimes disturbing now. A woman’s voice “You’re number one” in a tight loop Suddenly “We’re going to take you one step further” and the noise proper kicks in, a bass noise bassline, wheel squeak, pinging feedback squeals. Layered-up voices. Bass and squeak alternate now drowned in racket, then bass drum reverbed to murk bashes in under it and end.

Next up is Hannya White in a very different mode to the last time she was down, much more song based, starting with a bass (drum? pulse?) on the fours and she talks her voice, disturbingly muted, with reverb chains spiralling off it. After a while the song starts to tick like a clock, bat wing drums flutter. The next song starts with a sub sonic throbbing, shortwave radio static, the bassline swirls up then back down again. Clicking bass drum and some truly terrifying screaming start in raising the energy levels right up, the shortwave voice from the future still there, the drums choppy, the screaming looped now alternates with a guttural roar. Something goes wrong and her laptop crashes, so we have a brief interval before it takes up again and carries on with a slightly less thick and intense version of the same song. The drums have dropped and eventually the wobbling deep bass comes back in against the looping screams. The third song starts with a staccato bass drum, again this has the vague air of Prince of Darkness, the static hiss disguising redemption, the hiss slowly recedes and we are left with a sub bass wash and infernal drumming. The next song starts with a slow count “1….2….3….” against a slow crunchy snow step. A toppy bass starts, sprightly and the bass drum follows suit. Vocal layer up against the counting, not densely, though, sparse, a little hum, some talking. The bass drum glitches and a saw-tooth bassline quietly lurks, a drop to the humming, then a ticking beat and everything comes back in. a little more driving. The bass drum starts to overdrive something. Off-beats. “Free, Free”. Another breakdown and then it’s all back again, louder and with more delay drowned in a swamp of bass delay noise. And I think that’s it.

And rounding the evening off in classy style is Alien Alarms & Ieva Dubova. They’ve apparently had a run through and Ieva has scored some parts for herself. She plays the piano, Jim as usual chopping the beats and such on his laptop. They start with one of Ieva’s pieces, “R”, solo piano to start, the room noise drops to next to nothing. Jim has some delayed percussion flourishes and slight seagull scrapes. It’s very subtle and rather lovely. Next is one of Jim’s pieces. Starting with bass drone, AI voice, beeps. This time Ieva providing the haunting flourishes. It subtle and minimal but remarkably atmospheric, adding a tangible layer of dread. No drums. The AI voice breaking down into glitching stammers as the song progresses. the bass drone never falters, and slowly the electronics fade out. The next track is “A leap” another Alien Alarms one, bass line, drums and Jim’s singing. Ieva’s piano again understated, and for “time to take a leeeeeaaaap” a cascade of notes as everything else drops out and it feels like she’s going to take off McCoy Tyner style, which she eventually does after the third chorus, when nothing comes back and she lets fly with the occasional bubbling from Jim. The next track is “The Spirit of Gravity” their first collaboration. Based on the Nietzschean text from which we got our name. Its slightly reworked from the original on the “A poem in 6 parts” compilation for which it was first written, more space, more sub bass drones, more eerie piano, less broken drum parts. Jim watches like a hawk. There are breakdowns, the piano comes back the electronics crescendo as the piano gets higher into tinkling intensity of dripping rains. Back and forth between the two of them now the drums to the fore and now the piano takes control, flurries of notes to end. Avril 14th to end, which Ieva can obviously play in spite of the ridiculous leaps between notes. And extemporise around, so she leads this with the piano, then Jim pitches right in with the drums and full tilt getting into chopping and Ieva gets working right around the song. The closest we’ve had to jazz in a long time, the two of them improvising around each other. I think given the nature of the sound, though, no chance of the Jazz Limiters being triggered. They are on fire. A proper creative energy around the room.


Wringing loose the tiny titans

Posted on by Spirit of Gravity

September 2024
The Rossi Bar

Armatures started the first track with watery whistles and strings before long bass vibratos tucked in under an arpeggiated piano. Moving on with staccato piano and noises which nearly get overwhelmed by this vast squelching noise that mutates as it sounds into liquid mud. The third track segues straight out of that with an Orbital-ish repetitive stabbing, eventually joined by synth-y water and  a half time kick. The drums get all glitched and we get a bit of filter on the synths. The fourth starts light, interweaving high synths pinging about, featherweight pads swirl and a fast beat kicks us off into space, planets spin past… mmmm arpeggios breakdown, then it gets a bit tougher, filtering and such, harder sounds. More pinging arpeggios and strings on the fifth. The sixth starts again watery this time aquatic piano, bubbles and an emerging rhythm track that dances around the synth  parts and the rhythm., before a stammering pointillistic superfast synth part. The final track starts with wind synths, seagulls, and a deep Edgar Froese arpeggio and string synth combo. Nice. Mid-tempo, a breakdown brings in the drums, some really great development on this track and a great rounding off for the set.

Due to stuff we had a bit of a sneak preview of the start of Yewen Jin’s set as a line check, but that didn’t matter, as it meant we got to hear it twice. She starts with nicely textured drones and a very digital sounding synth taking a bagpipe like line around it swirling up and down through several octaves. There’s repletion, almost, things drift, the drones slowly move in pitch and timbre, the synth line misses notes. Add new ones. Splits notes. Almost merging with the drone and shooting off again at tangents. The drone hitting a churchy tone. A single not leads us out of this, passage, then does that same thing of sliding up and down its melodic line, a melancholic counter line, low, reflects back weeping. Some mutating bubbling bass monster comes up inside this sound – dragon in a cave-like, the melodic lines get subsumed by abstract beeps and detuning tones. Suddenly there’s reverb and cavern feelings. And amazing levels of sub-bass. For something that comes across as simple superficially, there are amazing levels of sonic detail. Rumbles, pencil swishing, reverbs and slapback delay. Swipes, bells. There’s a lengthy passage of chiming piano.  More detuning synths, some kind of tacking machine, melodic burbling delay feedback. There’s some weird point  where Ennio Morricone gets munged with John Carpenter in a nightmare fairground. Her set ends on drones then Casio notes and delayed synth meeps.

And rounding off the evening we had Bantu, Gary testing out a new set and some new kit for a show in Finland. It’s a pretty low key start, some whirring, some humming, he has a bell which he processes and loops through the synth, there’s a slow bass drum that slowly fades up and modulates into a tone, then back again. Other synths spin off, some radio interference, delay whirrs, horror sounds, chirping. The first half of the set continues like this, that pulse that goes through the whole thing morphing away, sometimes fading to nothing, but always seemingly returning. There’s a lot of space, and not much bass. Odd radiophonic interludes of clanger conversation take over, watery burbles, robot dogs barking. Slowly it gets more structured, a stepping fuzzed synth line build in intensity, getting thicker and noisier, faster and more intense. There’s a short break and we get a perhaps more usual “Bantu” set of tumbling basslines, thick and raucously burbling away, the final piece starting again as some nightmarish radiophonic set of beeps and tones that slowly takes on more and more disturbingly loud forms, some ghoulish humming and resonance whistling. Emerging from inside this we get some hard bass tone slapping, everything converging into the upper registers for the end.



Circulatory somnambulism

Posted on by Spirit of Gravity

August 2024
The Rossi Bar

Marienbad
Someone in the audience described them as like being tuned into every radio station in the world at once. It certainly starts with a static-y screechy pulsating loop, dial spinning shortwave blasts of voice and tumbling notes. There’s a constant shift, one second glitching repetition , the next a spool spinning churn through the entire universe. And just as you’re used to that they’ll settle on something, letting it run for a while doing its thing – whatever that is – before disrupting it with squeaks or burbles or a shard of noise, a spurt of tone. It all sounds very tape based but is in fact sourced off a laptop. There’s even a short burst of “The BBC has shut down” sinusoidal tone, which they are far too young to actually know first hand. For a brief period we actually have a rhythm, a pseudo repeating pattern of bass drum, beep and grind. The set ends with a call to revolution.

MelJoann
Plays another intricately arranged AV set, integrating inspirational videos from her Mustics wellness cult into backing video for the songs. She also plays a keytar for part of the set. The songs are a mix from her past centring around “Assfuck the boss” from her first album “HR”, we’ve got a couple from the as yet unreleased new album. The second Mustics break channels the 80s adverts from the Sigue Sigue Sputnick album really nicely (the drum sounds and stabs are amazing). Mel looked confused when I mentioned this. Anyway if you haven’t seen MelJoanns disturbing RnB nightmare of modern life I really can’t describe it – I’ve tried and failed the last two times she played – watch the video.

Simon Pyke – Four Flex
Interesting software, it would have been good to have this displayed on the projector. Not Ableton, that’s for sure. Before his set he has something odd just shifting about in the air for about 15 minutes. Then his set proper starts. Beats, 4/4. Loops as texture, wind whistling witters. An odd take on techno, based on repeating sounds and textures: field recordings, tones, delays. Clatters in vast rooms. Vamps. La Dusseldorf in a new context. Some interesting use of pure sounds being wiped around the ears. The beat is front and centre, but there’s some really odd things going on around that, then you get some “nice” keyboard parts that distract you from the odd choirs, and tortured sea-life. The white noise slurs, and peculiar bass tonalities.