June 2024
The Rossi Bar

Nylon Prawn, Alistair & Nell, electronics & vocals, cornet & tap shoes! The first piece is largely radiophonic synth burbles blending with effected wordless vocal like whales singing to dolphins across vast distances. After a gasping peak it picks up momentum, tumbling away, and flattening out in breathy cornet flutters and synthful swirls. Nell gives a bit more form to her vocals for the second piece, and Al provides a disarming, warping synth sequence, all unlikely intervals, slurred and detuned, that slowly forms into a one note bassline with Nell singing over it. Drums. It becomes more insistent, hypnotic as it progresses, then slumps and boom: an evil bassline and a massive reverb-y kick stomp right in, Nell giving it blues diva over the top. There’s a nice quiet squelchy interlude with Nell back on wordless vox. A beep-y sequence starts that Nell interacts with very nicely that leads to another thump-y kick and occasionally bass tone. This warps into full on space vocals then a beat comes in, fully rounded, syncopated even. Nell bounces off it, scatting then gets back into singing mode again. The cornet gets some action at last. It swings round itself, in speared delays, bouncing to and fro.

Andrew Greaves was next up previewing his new album, our biggest selling physical format release (thumb drive). Against a firm wind Andrew starts with drones, drones that move into runs along the keyboard and back into drones. Beeping sequences spark off their heavily delayed selves, The beeps slow into a melodic line that via a grinding sound builds back into another bouncing sequence. Over this he runs a pair of melodic lines that eventually disrupt the sequences into minimalist basslines. Then again down into space whispers and mesmeric eastern scales. This third one is a slow builder, unfolding, slowly morphing as it progresses. Possibly the most complete piece of the evening, a hint of psychedelia and perhaps a touch of field recordings. And we finish on a very slow coda.

And for the evenings climax, Perry Frank with a very nice borrowed Vox guitar. He uses this and a synthesiser to feed an interesting effects chain. Preloading them with shimmering, pulsating washes. We can see some quite fast strumming or picking that results in a slow cascade of almost static tones. The first piece seems to have almost no dynamics at all, but manages to shift along quite beautifully. Sonically summoning up a cathedral cosmic vastness with slowly shifting shining notes winding through. As the first piece fades away we feel a pulse pushing through it, the guitar returns in crashing waves. A roaring full bodied crashing with a machine whining whirr pushing through. As the waves subside a drum track lumbers into consciousness and synth squalls cut into us. As it develops it conjures up images of a vast clockwork (yet vaguely organic) Godzilla. The volume drops down to a tense few minutes of uneasily quiet trilling. Distant shrieking metallic plates start us out of our reverie, a thrumming spaciousness of treble wrought from the guitar before he gets back to working on the tidal electronics. Again down to a gentle slowly pulsating guitar wash lapping rhythmically at the shore, that slowly evolves into a multi-layered drone – all light aircraft and light – to end. I haven’t really expressed how close your eyes and let it fill your mind beautiful this was. But it was.