Sonic Boom Six @ Moho Live (15th October)

★★

Teenage ska-punk gets a bad rap. Unfortunately, through all their pseudo-political rallying, and 'give yourselves a massive cheer' hyping, Sonic Boom Six didn't do much to dispel its reputation. The night was kicked off with an unexpectedly anarchic and brilliant support set from local hardcore ska-punk hooligans Stand Out Riot, who made good Moho Live's reputation for intense and intimate local gigs. The contagious enthusiasm and brutal confidence of lead singer and trombonist Francis Hunt translated to sheer hedonism in the crowd. In terms of a live experience, especially for a support band, it doesn't get much better.

After such an intense warm-up act, it felt strange to be apparently the only one let down by SB6, who played an enthusiastic but unconvincing hour of angsty, forced and pretty unremarkable tunes in uniform 'I Heart MCR' t-shirts and trucker caps. As a quick look at the crowd makes clear, it is music made for teenagers, designed to be frustrated over at home, then cathartically screamed and fist-bumped to live.

Between distinctly average songs, their on-stage presence consisted of repeated and shameless self-promotion, lazy crowd-pleasing soundbites (there's only so many times you can chant "sound of da police" without wanting to set fire to someone), and the odd manageably political outcry to get everyone all good and angry.

Despite all this, there is something to be said for the show. The introduction of each song sparked huge cheers of recognition, and letting the crowd choose from their back-catalogue was pretty well received. They're not changing the world, but anything that gets a crowd as enthusiastic and damn-near reverent as this Moho Live crowd seemed to be must be doing something right.

In their final song 'Back 2 Skool', lead singer Laila K preaches "...soon I know you never leave the playground", which was pretty unfortunately appropriate to a disappointing set.

http://www.student-direct.co.uk/2011/11/15/live-sonic-boom-six-moho-live/

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Clock Opera @ Sound Control (10th October)

★★★★
Playing an inexplicable second fiddle to Chapel Club’s flat-out uninteresting headline set, those who managed to arrive early enough were rewarded with a fierce and genuinely exciting half hour from experimental synth-rock titans Clock Opera.

Apart from a quick introduction, the band didn’t seem to be too interested in crowd interaction, but the all-too-short set contained enough diversity and raw power to draw their admittedly sparse audience in.
Frontman and songwriter Guy Connelly’s delicate voice bears a definite resemblance to Elbow’s Guy Garvey, but the thunder behind him points at something a hell of a lot more elemental. At times the painstaking sound manipulation on the pre-made samples brought to mind the wavy psychedelia of Feels-era Animal Collective, which only serves as a testament to their songcraft. Their over-reliance on these samples may have put some purists off, but the pot-bashing, crazy-dancing stage presence was more than enough to keep the audience hooked.

Samples aside, Clock Opera can also boast a pretty impressive musical proficiency. The drums were sprawling but thoroughly grounded, and Connelly’s voice was haunting and powerful in equal measure, expertly backed by precise and deep harmonies.

Closer and most recent single ‘Lesson No.7’ started off a with a spooky, chiming manipulated guitar loop and gradually built to a furious bass-heavy hurricane that drew the set to a pretty colossal conclusion.



http://www.student-direct.co.uk/2011/11/11/live-clock-opera-sound-control/

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Bert Jansch, 1943-2011

Up there with the most respected guitarists of his generation, Bert Jansch will be sorely missed. Influencing everyone from Jimmy Page to Johnny Marr to Devendra Banhart, his virtuosic style and intricate songwriting helped him lead the 60s folk revival, both as a solo artist and as part of folk-rock troubadours Pentagle. After fighting a two-year battle with cancer, Jansch died earlier this week at a hospice in north London, aged 67. In an interview with the Guardian last year, he said, "I'm not one for showing off. But I guess my guitar-playing sticks out", and as his legacy will testify, that’s more than an understatement.

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Girls - Father, Son, Holy Ghost

When Girls' debut Album was released in 2009, it was embraced for all its lo-fi tortured optimism and let's-get-fucked-up-and-love-each-other balladry. The story that led to its conception was pretty damn unbelievable (abandoned son of god-fearing cult members moves to San Francisco, is taken in by local millionaire, starts band with neighbourhood punks), and bandleader Christopher Owens' voice had apparently been tailor-made to break hearts, falling somewhere between Elvis Costello and Ryan Adams' end-of-the-road romanticism.

On Father, Son, Holy Ghost, Owens continues to channel the 60's sunshine pop of Roy Orbison and the Beach Boys, but in an altogether more ambitious, rounded and ultimately satisfying piece of work. Just like on the first album, there's a fresh batch of bouncy anthems about love that immediately sound like songs you've loved all your life, but they're tossed in with the Deep-Purple inspired, riff-heavy 'Die', the heartbreaking 'Vomit', and the world-weary despair of 'Myma' (a contraction of the last lines of the refrain 'so far away from home, and you my Ma'). It's an emotionality that borders on cliché, but lines that could appear over-sentimental and tacky elsewhere are so earnestly and desperately delivered that you can’t help but lend it the same sympathy and understanding that you would a close friend.

As is clear from the offset, the album borrows heavily from the past, but it's hard to imagine Owens' songs delivered in any other way. These are pop songs as they used to be, with all the raw emotion and attention to musical detail intact. Of course, it's got its weaker moments, but all in all Father, Son is anthemic, joyous, genuinely affecting and impossibly endearing in equal measure.



http://www.student-direct.co.uk/2011/10/28/album-girls-father-son-holy-ghost/

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Mixtape #6

Winter is coming.

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