“A cornucopia of electronic delights” – thus the evening is introduced, very aptly, by Miaoux Miaoux. And it is he who kicks things off.
Miaoux Miaoux
Just a man with a guitar occupies the stage. Around him are various little boxes of electronic jiggery-pokery. The ‘man with guitar’ shtick points towards a singer-songwriter. And indeed that’s more true than not. There may be gut-munching beats pulsing through each song, but they support rather than overpower the lyrics and chords. Light, innocent vocals with bowel-tingling bass whops. And it’s funky as hell. Sigur Ros with balls, effectively.
What the beats give is power in scope – he could, and should, have arenas jumping to this stuff. It’s epic, driving and uplifting. But that’s not to say simplistic or aimed at the lowest common denominator. There are some wonderfully obscure notions – “the quantum expression of fingerprints”. Anyone know what that means? Answers on a postcard, please.
Musically the songs are no less intriguing. One starts with an Underworld feel, but mutates into salsa. Satisfyingly bizarre, but never anything less than head-bobbingly awesome. This is synth with soul.
Discopolis
If you went to an indie night in the land of Tron, they would be listening to Discopolis. Boyish charm and bum-wiggling beats are the order of the day. Their reputation is growing at a rate of knots – they were name-checked on Radio 6 Music only today – so expectations are high. They do not disappoint.
At times their sound is like pulling over your head a lovely quilt your granny made for you out of synth waves, only with a subwoofer for a pillow. A guitar chimes. This is music to fly into the sun to.
A highlight is an inspired cover of Bob Marley’s ‘Waiting In Vain’. They coax a plaintive love song from their synths, and the effect is superb. The lyrical meaning came through clearer on this performance than the original. This is not a band simply doing unusual covers for comedy effect, they actually know what they’re doing.
Admirably, you can tell that the band are generating all their noises live from the feverish knob-twiddling and bleeps and pops that goes on between numbers. Of their last song they say, “it’s a biggie”, and they’re not lying. Bass punches you in the throat. It’s great.
North Atlantic Oscillation
Our last act complete the cycle from singer-songwriter with boxes of electronicky goodness, through the trio with a real guitar backing up numerous synths, to a live band (with a real drummer and everything) supplemented by lots of boxes.
“It’s amazing what we can do” – earnest lyrics are repeated as a mantra, while unison guitar and bass hammer home the message. Meanwhile, jazz drumming keeps things fresh. The music builds into all-enveloping moments.
There is a question as to whether all the electronic wizardry is necessary, the band are clearly making a wall of sound regardless. It’s a lot to take in.
One benefit of the gizmos, however, is that you notice and appreciate sounds such as a wailing guitar that simply cannot be made any other way than the real thing. It’s always good to see the sweat on a drummer’s brow. And this one is the metronomic lynchpin, hitting them hard enough to make John Bonham blush. Who needs a beat machine when you’ve got that?
(Words by Rob Sproul-Cran)
