Post by markwj on Nov 27, 2007 17:13:56 GMT
The Ocean, War from a Harlots Mouth
The Sugarmill, Stoke
21/11/07
After a training day in Brum, featuring some cool feedback from the lecturer’s wireless mike, a return visit to Stoke. The riot police were on the streets in advance of the evenings football, were they expecting a happy riot or and angry riot? Hmmm, I didn’t want to return to find my car torched that’s for sure, and it’s probably a good job the “fans” weren’t aware that there were a couple of German bands playing around the corner, because naturally it would have been their fault. I gave up my own national interests (as the Wales team did three matches back) for the evening to further international music relations.
Arrived earlier tonight as I expected a swift start, with four bands to get in before the curfew, but this turned out not to be the case. Firstly, Kent’s Bossk had suffered the demise of their van and weren’t going anywhere, never mind here. Secondly, the bassist from the main support, the U.S.’s Intronaut, had apparently been hospitalised in the morning due to puking blood, so they weren’t here either. Didn’t result in any reduction in the door price though, guess they’ve still got to cover their costs.
Significant difference in the crowd tonight, maybe half the numbers of last night, with the alternative/uniformed emo kids making up a fair proportion it. And they are here with a purpose as War From A Harlots Mouth have apparently played here already this year and have obviously accrued a following. Not surprising, as despite looking like skinny geeks they unleash some frenetic and aggressive tech-grind with more than hefty touch of relentless screamo. The extreme vocals are provided by one of the headliners vocalists as they have lost their own at short notice apparently, pretty sterling effort to keep this up for two sets. The staccato intensity of the music brings on short bursts of berserk and funny “hardcore” windmilling and highkicking from a few of the kids, but fair play, at least they can laugh at themselves when they go flat on their arse sometimes. The band themselves also put a lot of energy into flinging their instruments around, it is an impressive performance but ultimately the sheer amount of complexity and rapidly changing structures tends to wash over me in the end, leaving little to remember.
The Ocean are sometimes referred to as The Ocean Collective as when you look at the CD insert (in the gorgeously designed digipack of their new “Precambrian” album I was simply forced to buy) there are a hell of a lot of people involved in the recording. However they are stripped down to a more conventional band for practical live purposes, the more orchestral elements, the vibes and drones, and assorted vocals reduced to layers provided via laptop. All the house lights are turned off, leaving just blue and green filtered uplights to create an atmosphere. This starts of in a very gentle way with just melancholy guitar picking and haunting, wavering vibes that might almost have come from Portishead. Naturally, this builds and progresses, a familiar pattern now with many of the bands seen in this post-rock, post-metal genre, but the interest is maintained.
They almost get a bit prog at times, experimental meanderings like Tool, which would start to irritate me if it went on for too long, and one guitarists Kiss t shirt raises questions of dubious influence as well. All is forgiven though when they introduce the shade to contrast the light, and launch into some supremely heavy, viciously distorted steamroller riffs. This takes me back, with a massive smile on my face, to the good old days of early Cult of Luna (before they started to forget to switch their distortion pedals on!), especially with the addition of the dual roared vocals. For some reason I’d thought they were an instrumental band but the harsh screamed and deep growled mix is present for most of the set, though there are times when they sing with melody, the bassist chipping in on occasion. I will tolerate any shift and drift through the moods knowing that this heaviness is always there to return.
In keeping with the evening it turns out to be a game of two halves. There’s a very satisfying hour or so of this first set before they leave to some sustained tones, change the filters to red and yellow, and return to provide an additional sharp contrast with a blasting set of more technical metal similar to the first band. It is striking and memorable in the whole set up of this performance, but unfortunately I find this latter set a bit more unremarkable and generic, until the last song where they reintroduce a bit more variation and tempo changes. Interesting to see that their album release matches this, with a bonus disc of this fast and aggressive stuff in addition to the conventional album, and it does sound a bit better on there, maybe I just needed familiarity. I have heard that this angle is a somewhat newer evolution to them but perhaps that is a natural part of the process of collective song creation, depending on who is involved determining the tangents or directions the music takes. Still, it’s been an excellent show, only wish I’d caught on to them a bit sooner.
So while alles is dda with the Germans and this Welshman I step out onto the deserted streets of the town centre, getting a clear impression of the course of events for the evening. Has it been raining or is this merely tears running down the gutters?
The Sugarmill, Stoke
21/11/07
After a training day in Brum, featuring some cool feedback from the lecturer’s wireless mike, a return visit to Stoke. The riot police were on the streets in advance of the evenings football, were they expecting a happy riot or and angry riot? Hmmm, I didn’t want to return to find my car torched that’s for sure, and it’s probably a good job the “fans” weren’t aware that there were a couple of German bands playing around the corner, because naturally it would have been their fault. I gave up my own national interests (as the Wales team did three matches back) for the evening to further international music relations.
Arrived earlier tonight as I expected a swift start, with four bands to get in before the curfew, but this turned out not to be the case. Firstly, Kent’s Bossk had suffered the demise of their van and weren’t going anywhere, never mind here. Secondly, the bassist from the main support, the U.S.’s Intronaut, had apparently been hospitalised in the morning due to puking blood, so they weren’t here either. Didn’t result in any reduction in the door price though, guess they’ve still got to cover their costs.
Significant difference in the crowd tonight, maybe half the numbers of last night, with the alternative/uniformed emo kids making up a fair proportion it. And they are here with a purpose as War From A Harlots Mouth have apparently played here already this year and have obviously accrued a following. Not surprising, as despite looking like skinny geeks they unleash some frenetic and aggressive tech-grind with more than hefty touch of relentless screamo. The extreme vocals are provided by one of the headliners vocalists as they have lost their own at short notice apparently, pretty sterling effort to keep this up for two sets. The staccato intensity of the music brings on short bursts of berserk and funny “hardcore” windmilling and highkicking from a few of the kids, but fair play, at least they can laugh at themselves when they go flat on their arse sometimes. The band themselves also put a lot of energy into flinging their instruments around, it is an impressive performance but ultimately the sheer amount of complexity and rapidly changing structures tends to wash over me in the end, leaving little to remember.
The Ocean are sometimes referred to as The Ocean Collective as when you look at the CD insert (in the gorgeously designed digipack of their new “Precambrian” album I was simply forced to buy) there are a hell of a lot of people involved in the recording. However they are stripped down to a more conventional band for practical live purposes, the more orchestral elements, the vibes and drones, and assorted vocals reduced to layers provided via laptop. All the house lights are turned off, leaving just blue and green filtered uplights to create an atmosphere. This starts of in a very gentle way with just melancholy guitar picking and haunting, wavering vibes that might almost have come from Portishead. Naturally, this builds and progresses, a familiar pattern now with many of the bands seen in this post-rock, post-metal genre, but the interest is maintained.
They almost get a bit prog at times, experimental meanderings like Tool, which would start to irritate me if it went on for too long, and one guitarists Kiss t shirt raises questions of dubious influence as well. All is forgiven though when they introduce the shade to contrast the light, and launch into some supremely heavy, viciously distorted steamroller riffs. This takes me back, with a massive smile on my face, to the good old days of early Cult of Luna (before they started to forget to switch their distortion pedals on!), especially with the addition of the dual roared vocals. For some reason I’d thought they were an instrumental band but the harsh screamed and deep growled mix is present for most of the set, though there are times when they sing with melody, the bassist chipping in on occasion. I will tolerate any shift and drift through the moods knowing that this heaviness is always there to return.
In keeping with the evening it turns out to be a game of two halves. There’s a very satisfying hour or so of this first set before they leave to some sustained tones, change the filters to red and yellow, and return to provide an additional sharp contrast with a blasting set of more technical metal similar to the first band. It is striking and memorable in the whole set up of this performance, but unfortunately I find this latter set a bit more unremarkable and generic, until the last song where they reintroduce a bit more variation and tempo changes. Interesting to see that their album release matches this, with a bonus disc of this fast and aggressive stuff in addition to the conventional album, and it does sound a bit better on there, maybe I just needed familiarity. I have heard that this angle is a somewhat newer evolution to them but perhaps that is a natural part of the process of collective song creation, depending on who is involved determining the tangents or directions the music takes. Still, it’s been an excellent show, only wish I’d caught on to them a bit sooner.
So while alles is dda with the Germans and this Welshman I step out onto the deserted streets of the town centre, getting a clear impression of the course of events for the evening. Has it been raining or is this merely tears running down the gutters?