A few words and images from Alan Dearling
Last night was a Dark Matter Promotions’ gig at the Golden Lion in Todmorden. Two very different performances. Both sharing an intensity and dynamism.
First up: [ s l a b ] from Manchester. Very doomy, grunge. I kind of felt it was like a heavyweight slice of The Smiths. During their set, they included two new numbers, but the majority of tracks were from their album, ‘Taut’, which has been receiving lots of positive reviews. Certainly they create a very dark wall of sound, maybe in the entrance tunnel into Hades. The opening track ‘Deliverance’ from ‘Taut’ is indeed taut, moody, and like much of their material, including single, ‘Multikim’, it is filled with real shoegaze gloom. Dissonance in shedloads, pounding, hard driving drums, tinkling guitars and actually quite melodic harmonies.
‘Multikim’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeMvjA4hV8o
[ s l a b ] are Lianne (drums) Paul (bass/vocals) and Tom (guitar/vocals). The promo for the band suggests that “…the trio’s cinematic, emotive dynamics and melodic hooks have seen them categorised as post-rock, shoegaze and indie but in fact, the sound of [ s l a b ] is entirely and uniquely a product of the band’s chemistry.”
Like many albums with a significant depth of sonic intensity, I like my quotient of [ s l a b ] listened to on high quality headphones at a volume I can control!
I had already been listening to Heavenphetamine’s album, ‘The Sun on a Winter’s Day’ in advance of seeing this headlining duo from Japan. They produce a drum-laden smorgasbord of sound. Following on from [ s l a b ] their musical fare is much more experimental.
Live, Heavenphetamine created layer upon layer of samples, loops, drum and bass-driven, hypnotic, psychedelic waves of unflinching sound. A veritable tapestry, with melodic Japanese vocals flying above the array of often weird, wailing synth sounds and at all times, extraordinarily complex repetitive live drumming.
Lots of spacey sounds interspersed with flute-like solos and deeply sonorous drones. It had me thinking of a mixture of a far more intense and heavy long sonic adventure conducted by Tangerine Dream with a bit of Mike Oldfield thrown in for good measure. Intriguing.
‘Alive’ video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyFD3OZELbw
Heavenphetamine have recently been on a long, long musical roadtrip in Europe, including playing gigs in Ukraine for benefit events to help support the country’s defenders. Originally from Tokyo, Hiroki and Sara moved to live in the country of Georgia in 2021 and are based in Tbilisi. Whilst they are often billed as psychedelic Kraut-rock, theirs is definitely Japanese-infused electronica.
The Carpet Sessions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IXW7XalZfw
Overall, a somewhat brain-numbing evening, but curiously invigorating too.
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