Circle: Edinburgh 11/10/04

[M Holmes]

I went to see these guys last night. The venue is an old cinema ripped
out to provide the usual nightclub hangar arrangement. Not a huge stage
for a lightshow, and the bar at the back is separated by a
semi-transparent perspex screen, which means that the band can only be
heard rather than seen from the bar area, which is strange since the bar
area is raised above the dancefloor.

The band had four members: basically lead, bass, drums and a synth guy
right up front. Everyone but the drummer did some vocals, and the synth
guy at some points turned around back to the audience, facing the
drumkit and did some percussion.

The sound is as if Paranoia and Seeing It As You Really Are were melded
with "The End" from the Doors and brought up to date. Each song would
start with sonic soundscapes produced with the instruments. Gradually
the drumming would get heavier and the vocals would involve chanting and
screaming, possibly in Finnish. This would be held for minutes either
building to a crescendo or slowing down again to rebuild later.

This worked for me on a couple of tracks, which were about half of the
quite short gig, and not really for the rest. These guys had power, but
I found myself wanting to hear them break out into some solid rhythmical
blanga rather than holding to the sonic soundscape concept. I also
didn't like the drums, which were held to various military rhythms done
robotically and without much expression. It's hard to see the point of
having a live drummer basically imitate a drum machine. Maybe I just
don't get it.

I'm glad I went, and I was inspired enough by the tracks I liked to ask
which CD's had these on them, but the seller and the soundman didn't
know - maybe it's just all jamming?

I bumped into gingoblin there and we had a couple of drinks afterwards.
It's always great to see other local hawkfans, and having any sort of
spacerock around here ought to be encouraged.

FoFP