event - merzbow at xoyo, london

27th october

Not sounding anything like the warped noise of Merzbow himself, the first band on have presumably been plucked out of East London for the volume they create. Their music is noisy, but born out of rock traditions and

instruments, and with no laptops in sight. They come onto the small stage very casually, and start with Shellac-esque atonal riffing that takes a few minutes to grow into something more catchy and conventional. The transition is carried out expertly as they move through noise rock, sludge, stoner and doom and all the way back again. What's even better is the way they strike a consistent tone – the singer's distorted, angry screams do most of the work, and hint ever so slightly at the angst of Harvey Milk's Creston Piers. It's hard hitting but captivating and a lot of fun to watch, and much better than the few recordings available online at this point would suggest.

Next on are Nadja. Aidan Baker is a very busy man, releasing several albums a year under his own name but a finding the time to collaborate with the likes of Tim Hecker and as with Nadja, 'bookbinder' Leah Buckareff. Things start well, fierce guitar and bass drones being processed through a tabletop covered in samplers, effects pedals and mixers, some looping the sounds while others play progressive drum patterns and spoken word samples.

Sadly, the reliance on technology takes its toll when the power shorts, cutting out everything. Obvious frustration from the band is greeted with a we-know-it's-not-your-fault round of applause and calls for an unplugged show, but the sound man comes on and seems to get things back on track. They abandon the loops they'd been building for the past fifteen minutes and try a different song, but this only lasts about five minutes before everything trips again. They soldier on, and move into a haunting piece with murmuring samples and rich stringed harmonies. Again the sound man comes on to sort the next power failure but the recurring problem is really starting to interfere, and after a few more outages Aidan says they'll have one last go until it cuts out for the final time. They don't last thirty seconds and a gutted Nadja leaves with a great and very understanding reception. In better circumstances they'd surely be sublime, but it was hard to get totally involved with the fear that everything could stop at any moment.

In spite of the venue's best efforts, Masami Akita has been recording under the name of Merzbow for over thirty years and it'd take a staggeringly bad set up to stunt him. He senses that a large amp on the left isn't working and sorts it out well before starting, and with that there are no more technical issues. Joining him is Hungarian metal drummer Balázs Pándi, who gives extra bite without laying down too tight a structure over Merzbow's often searching sounds.

And it's an absolute onslaught – Akita rarely pauses, with Pándi spending most of the time pounding away somewhere in the middle of the mix. He plays his strangely assembled guitar-like instrument resembling both a

defibrillator and a dystopian Japanese landscape. It lives up to its looks, producing all the harshness and dissonance you'd expect from someone who sticks so rigidly to a formula of white noise. His interest in BDSM definitely comes across, appearing calm and collected as he does, sat at his office desk while subjecting the entire audience to the most nightmarish aural monsters he's collected and built over the course of his career. When it finally does come to an end there's a sense of relief, especially for the sake of tortured ears, but there's an unsettling desire for it to continue. It's not quite victim's guilt, but a longing for the intense, carefully structured extremes that he conjures up so readily.

Originally posted on Rare FM

event - health at ec2 warehouse, london

16th october

Coming on just after midnight, HEALTH were the main event at the first night of Lanzarote, a new club night and live music venture in London. The idea is to put bands and DJs on at hours

normally expected of clubs and to do it in mostly improvised venues. Tonight's event took place on Great Eastern Street in the basement of what looked like an office building, and featured several DJs including Hounds of Hate, Richard Fearless and Andrew Hung. There was also a support slot from upcoming post-dubsteppers Dam Mantle, who built up a fair bit of atmosphere in their twenty five minutes on stage.

So the night worked. Sort of. It was a sloppy conversion, with minimal toilet facilities and a simple paint job. But the worrying part of it was the set up of two lighting rigs and two speaker stacks. They looked precarious, placed on either side of the small stage, and later pushed to their limits during HEALTH'S set. Either through inexperience or laziness, or maybe the fact that the only act anyone was here to see were coming on after midnight, the place had a sterile atmosphere for a long time, only really broken up by Dam Mantle's funky, energetic shuffles. All that was about to change though.

About fifteen minutes after soundcheck, HEALTH returned to the stage, and singer Jake explains that there was nothing rock 'n' roll about their

disappearance: "we walked up to the top of the stairs, and then I started crying, and..." But he suffers an aural ambush from the rest of the band and never finishes, instead hurling glitchy, violent tones into the burgeoning mosh pit. What was a tame, slightly bored crowd has been turned on its head, and quite literally for those taking part in the projectile crowdsurfing that begins straight away. Hours of no readmission have taken their toll, and people are snatching the opportunity to lose themselves in HEALTH's onstage intensity.

The songs from their latest, Get Color, just feel so much more important live. The breakdowns in Nice Girls are tight and ominous, giving John a breather from his sinusoidal bass-swinging and letting his hair calm down. The dynamics are fully accentuated in such a small live setting, and it's the range of volumes, tempos and instruments playing at the same time that really excite, not just the fact that they can recreate their spooky sound perfectly in a whitewashed cellar.

They play some new material, which sounds very promising, and close the set with Heaven from their debut, recent semi-hit singles Die Slow and We Are Water and USA Boys from their latest release, remix album DISCO2. The speakers look like they're actually going to fall over on many occasions, the light fittings rock around from time to time, and inevitably the band decides the crowd is 'pumped' enough for an encore. Finishing up at about half past one, HEALTH are certainly a band worth sticking around for.

event - oceansize at koko, london

1st october

Playing a one-off support slot for Oceansize on their current European tour, Yndi Halda are an unexpected treat. Sadly though, time constraints mean that what was intended to be a swift two-song set is cut down without the band's

knowledge to a meagre one-and-a-half. By the standards of most this wouldn't be much stage time but Yndi Halda get around half an hour, managing to showcase what they're most widely praised for as well as giving a taste of what's to come. After a good stint in post-rock done to perfection where the band move in sinuous, tectonic synchronisation, they introduce a new song, which retains only some of these elements. There are vocals now, and acoustic guitar tapped at the harmonic intervals. It's still as spacious and complex as the first song, but it's more delicate, using subtler dynamics than changes in volume. It's a real shame to see it cut short, but the band promises to play a full set next time. Let's hold them to it.

Next up are This Town Needs Guns, and while they stay true to the math-rock sensibilities of fellow Oxford bands Youthmovies and Foals, they have all the technical abilities of the latter without the pomposity.

When playing tracks from 2008's Animals they do have the tendency to lose themselves in complex rhythms and self-regarding finger-tapping, but on new material they recover the crunch and the heart of their earlier sound, making whatever they release next something to look forward to. The announcement that they'll play old favourite 26 is Dancier than 4 is greeted with many cheers, and they go so much further than on the studio recording, Stuart Smith looking like the moment means everything to him, and moving his torso accordingly. Their ability to convey emotion alongside obvious proficiency is what marks them out from their peers, and they don't do it any better than when they're on stage.

Taking the stage at a slightly premature ten past eight, Oceansize waste no time introducing themselves and dive straight into Part Cardiac, the opener from recent full length Self Preserved While the Bodies Float Up, which you can read about here. It's intense, it's frightening and it's the only song they'll play that sounds at all like this. But that's what makes Oceansize such a fantastic live experience, constantly changing what they do over the course of their 90 minutes. They create huge swells of distortion, intricate three-part guitar patterns, and show they can do anything the two bands we've already seen tonight can do.

The loyalty among their fans is obvious, with practically every song getting a cheer in its opening moments, but the reception to their latest album is just as warm as for the old favourites like Ornament/The Last Wrongs. Singer Mike Vennart says the new one's their

best album and, maybe realising the faux pas he's just made, simply reaffirms what he's said. And for the first time in musical history he may actually be right. In any case, everything they play is a winner, and the only noticeable discernment among the audience is when someone shouts "play something heavy". They do, of course. Highlights include Paper Champion, which builds over funky bass riffs into a menacing climax, and the encore of Women Who Love Men Who Love Drugs, the mostly instrumental saga from their debut Effloresce. It's as this song ends that they depart for the last time, one by one, until three guitars remain, repeating lush, melancholic notes that gradually quieten as enormous cheers see them off stage.

release - world's end girlfriend - seven idiots

type: album

released: 13th september 2010

label: virgin babylon

genre: glitch, electronic, idm, post-rock

Katsuhiko Maeda has never been one to go for simplicity in his compositions. His works are invariably sprawling, multi-faceted beasts that blend complex song structures, strange electronics and beautiful melodies. At 79 minutes and 43 seconds, here is another epic that carries on several of those traits, but ignores a central element of his previous albums – subtlety.

Described by Maeda himself as 'irregular pop', this is a brash and outrageous homage to jazz, glam rock and psychedelia, filtered through robotic guitars and unpredictable drum patterns. Written originally with vocal tracks which were then taken out, the directions of the songs are intentionally hard to follow, seemingly changing course every ten seconds.

The Divine Comedy Reverse begins with clean-sounding fret-tapping as tinkling keys bring in romantic strings, saturated in electronics and closing with a synthetic flourish. Screeches, drums and horns decorate the background. At just over a minute, this is quite a lot to take in, but it's a good indicator of what's coming.

Les Enfants du Paradis contains everything this album does well – prominent guitars used for lead and rhythm, uplifting and buoyant Mega Drive electronics and a sense of ordered chaos. It's immediate and impulsive, mutating through its hyperactive, metallic textures and finally finding its groove at around five minutes to reach critical mass. It has beautiful, reflective strings in parts but overall it's a song that's meant to be fun.

There are songs on this album that are far more hectic. TEEN AGE ZIGGY is nonsense in musical form, totally over the top. It's weightless and shallow, lacking the resonance of some of his earlier work, inspiring only momentary feelings in its aural hedonism. Helter Skelter Cha-Cha-Cha is messy too with its chugging bass and big drums. Its horns are abrasive and snarling, but not quite dissonant.

This wild and fractured side to the album ends after GALAXY KID 666, when we are introduced to the album's centrepiece, the three-part suite Bohemian Purgatory, which clocks in at 25 minutes. Part. 1 begins with slightly distorted ambient followed by ominous piano and a tinkling, minimalist melody that's as sparse as the first songs were dense. It builds logically and uniformly, in a way not yet seen on the album, before jumping back to more erratic sounds. Part. 2 is more easily comprehensible, spending time pressing at the edges of each idea it has, blending them all into something akin to swing played with the instruments of electronica. The trilogy closes with some gentle lullaby tinkling, continuously disturbed by white noise and fragmented vocal samples.

After this, the album does get a bit more minimal. Der Spiegel im Spiegel im Spiegel leaves a lot of space open, breaking into silence a few times and allowing haunting piano keys to chime alone. They return at the beginning of The Offering Inferno, the penultimate song and the scariest. Sounds of violence have been used before in Maeda's music, and they are tortured into the music here with car alarms, breaking glass, laughter and the monotonous piano that still chimes at regular intervals. There is a sense of building intensity and power electronics come in and out of the mix, until the halfway mark when it loses all structure to become a glitchy, noisy assault of which only the Japanese are truly capable.

Closer unfinished finale shed is more like Maeda's former style, hymnal and mournful. It meanders but never leaves its territory for complex drum patterns and guitar solos. It tells us that we've come a long way in the album's CD-squeezing running time, and gives balance to the often overwrought sounds of Seven Idiots. The fade out is probably the most beautiful thing on here, and its inclusion is a sign that Maeda hasn't completely abandoned his graceful, peaceful side.

World's End Girlfriend - Les Enfants Du Paradis

release - deerhunter - halcyon digest

type: album

released: 28th september 2010

label: 4ad

genre: dream pop, art rock, neo-psychedelia

Deerhunter are annoyingly consistent. It could be because they're so prolific – they've produced two solo efforts between them in the two-year gap between their last release and this, their fourth album, so there's obviously a lot of spare energy kicking about. The result is that every Deerhunter album is excellent, the focused efforts of several talented people. Of the three albums that preceded it, Halcyon Digest has most in common with Microcastle and its companion disc Weird Era Continued, leaving behind the garage punk of their debut and the krautish ambient of Cryptograms. Jerky riffs and abstract vocals still abound, but this is very accessible.

What Halcyon Digest has over its immediate predecessor is balance. Microcastle had its best parts at the beginning and a forgettable middle section, whereas this is both cohesive and, while it doesn't always reach the highs of Microcastle, is engaging throughout.

Earthquake isn't actually earth-shatttering, though the band are more than capable, but actually breezy and glitchy, an atmospheric opener warmed up by Bradford Cox's laid back and undemanding vocals. It's testament to the band's ability to pretty much craft ambient songs out of their production techniques. What they don't do this time however is take that to its logical conclusion, leaving such experiments firmly in Cox's bedroom. Instead, a simple idea can sound big and lush, and this glossy sound is heard throughout.

When the sheen is removed things get interesting. On Sailing, a simple set of percussion and lonely guitar get behind Cox as he sings a plaintive, spaced out ballad, whose placing on the album is bold and succeeds where the equivalent tracks on previous efforts felt like they needed fleshing out. It only sounds like Atlas Sound in as much as it's written and sung by the same person, but the inclusion of a single song this intimate on a Deerhunter album is a very clever move. Poppy Helicopter is the antithesis. Uplifting and spartan, it runs at a perfect pace and Cox's vocals are sweet and immaculate without sounding robotic, building up but always staying gentle.

Everything else on the album is somewhere between these two, with a lot of distortion and attitude added along the way. Coronado is a standout for its catchy buildup that gets straight to the point, before culminating in a jazzy swell. Desire Lines starts off with swirling vocals and guitars lined up in orderly repetition, but has an instrumental send-off that allows the band to add in every last studio flourish they can without spoiling the broth. The broth is thick and consistent.

This is great album by Deerhunter that doesn't do a lot to challenge the sound we're used to hearing but does nothing to tarnish the reputation either. A welcome addition to the pile.

artist - fetch the witches

Still under a year into their career, four piece Fetch The Witches are one of the more promising emerging acts of the North West, hailing from Stoke-On-Trent and currently residing in Manchester.

They play a brand of moody, melancholic rock not unfamiliar to such

parts of England, but also convey a love for Oxford bands like Radiohead, Fell City Girl and early This Town Needs Guns. What is perhaps their calling card is a spacious use of atmospherics in their sound that allows them to break away from ordinary song structures without sounding contrived. Instead, the impressionistic pieces they create can last up to six minutes while sounding much shorter, sounding big without the help of too much studio interference.

So far they've released a digital EP available here, heavy with saddened choruses and tense, jagged riffs. The highlight is X, recalling the math-rock leanings of early Biffy Clyro and carrying an urgency that's shockingly convincing for a first release.

Upcoming single, also titled Fetch the Witches has a more instant feel to it, but never lets go of the band's tendency towards stranger song

structures. It starts with intimate vocals and a one-note guitar line and a skipping drum beat before lush, organic guitars are brought in. There are plenty of great melodies here, often more than one at once, and the chanting of the band's own name is bold and inspired. What's in line with everything else they've done here is the slightly darkened passion residing in the faintly tortured vocals and discordant twin guitars. The single's out September 24th, on a limited vinyl run of 300, available for purchase on the band's shop and featuring some rather exciting cover art. You can also catch them at Manchester's Night and Day Café on November 11th.

release - oceansize - self preserved while the bodies float up

released: 6th september 2010
type: album

label: superball music

genre: progressive rock, alternative rock, post-rock

Oceansize are one of those bands who seem to follow their instincts musically rather than any apparent external forces or trends. They've been constructing progressive and emotionally charged rock music since 1998, and still sound as fresh as they did then. This their fourth album, recorded in their own studio in Manchester is their shortest yet by some distance at 51 minutes. It's effectively their pop album, if Oceansize are capable of making one.

It's not a pop album. 2008's Frames didn't contain any songs under 6 minutes, and while only two reach that length here it's not because they've toned down the progressive side of their music. If anything, the extremes are more extreme. While SuperImposer is gentle and intricately melodic, with opener Part Cardiac they give us their take on doom metal, Mike Vennart slipping into the role with frightening ease.

The differences between these first two songs on the album do give a good idea of the variation to come though. There are furious, fast-paced ones like It's My Tail and I'll Chase It If I Want To with its long heavy intro and backing screams from Simon Neil of Biffy Clyro. There are also slower, mellow songs which make use of Oceansize's ability to craft complex two or even three-part melodies from trebly guitars, like A Penny's Weight, with its muffled drums and occasional scratchy, delayed guitar.

The two focal points of the album are the two longest songs, which unlike the majority Frames don't rely on repetition or long instrumental passages. Instead they blend different styles to create an impressionistic effect much like Women Who Love Men Who Love Drugs from their debut, Effloresce. Oscar Acceptance Speech recalls Mew's latest effort with higher vocals backed by more bassy ones as they come in for a second time halfway through the song. This leads into an extended, understated string outro, offering a brief moment of sparsity on the record. The other longer track on the album, Silent / Transparent, opens with jangly guitars and a warm vocal melody that for the attentive listener signals something brasher to come. A long-held note at around the fourth minute brings some delicately distorted riffing that then slows the pace of the song completely for a build of uplifting guitars and tapping drums that, unlike the outro of Oscar Acceptance Speech, only increases in size.

Pine is a slow-burner, taking from post-rock with its siren-like strings and Mogwai-esque murmuring and developing into an utterly mournful, bruising finish of complex drums, romantic violin and distortion. It's a beautiful song, and segues unexpectedly but not jarringly into closer SuperImposter, which starts with a jazzy rhythm and low-key vocals, taking care never to fully unleash itself. It keeps a certain level of restraint throughout, using the guitars to offer a different rhythm from the drums. It takes a while to settle in, but proves the band are using everything at their disposal here.

While it's an album that could clearly be cherry-picked for great singles, it's uncompromising, working well as a complete piece much like their other, much longer records. They're simultaneously fearless in writing catchy pop songs and in taking their sound further with every record, which is quite rare, and very much welcome. Having said that, it's definitely an album that rewards repeated, careful listens.