NsN, Bury and Disinter, Manyfingers at The Cube

Before I get into this I've got a major confession to make: this was actually my first visit to The Cube! Been in Bristol six years, never been. Well those days are over now. To find out more about the Cube and why it's slightly embarrassing that I haven't been yet, visit their web site.

North Sea Navigator, along with Tim (Drummer of Angel Tech Fame) was sounding much better, much clearer than a few weeks ago where the engineer really screwed up the sound. The performance was excellent, covering up for the missing cello admirably, and we were treated to a sound that strictly shouldn't be allowed to come from two people. NSN as a 'band' has gone through many different mutations, from playing solo acoustic sets to the full line up of electric guitar, cello and harmonium / drums. Coming in late on the scene, I can't really comment on the actual progression of the music, but the current sound is confident and powerful. NSN are currently working on an album, to complement the Alibis E.P. released a couple of months ago.

Bury and Disinter are the only group I've seen for a while who appeared to be bored by their own music. I think everyone else was wondering what they were supposed to be experiencing as well. A stone's throw away from pure ambience, there were a couple of moments that made you think 'I like this bit' but generally directionless soundscapes accompanied by meaningless visuals made for a fairly dull show. The only thing that stopped me disappearing to the bar was that I was worried I'd wake up the people next to me when I climbed over them. A good example of 'they're good at what they do', but I didn't really get it, if indeed there was anything to get.

Manyfingers on the other hand, otherwise known as multi-instrumentalist Chris Cole (Crescent, Movietone, Matt Elliot) was a seriously powerful experience. Echoing the layering concepts used back in the days of post-modern 20th century art music, think Phillip Glass, Nancarrow and their ilk, the aptness of the name was immediately apparent once we realised that the set-up of cello, drum kit, keyboards, guitar, mixing desk and various interesting looking effects units were going to be played by just one person! Each tune started with a simple piano line, usually a four-bar loop, to which he added layer upon layer of melody and rhythm with impressive results. It was just fantastic waiting to see what he was going to add next, and occasionally a cornet player appeared and added a bit of extra melody on top. I did find myself wondering whether the music was written with maths or just by sound, he carefully followed a script, on which I imagined was simply written things like, 'now hit your guitar like this', followed by a little diagram only he would understand. I hope anyway! This was a really good gig.