Cajita, Rose Kemp, Geisha, 17th Nov

Wednesday 17th November, the Louisiana, Bristol

Cajita are a strange collective, quiet, melodic and with some atmospheric quality that I'm finding really hard to define. With a backing of samples for the rhythm section, electronica noises and chilled guitars, the music is both melancholic and uplifting. When they were playing, they created an almost perfect world of sound which was marred only by the drowning out of the drum samples in the loud bits. Even more frustrating was the fact that there was a drumkit right behind the laptop, looking lonely, unwanted and desperately needed. In the room upstairs at the Louisiana, this was an intimate relaxing gig, no wonder everyone sat on the floor, entranced by the music.

Rose Kemp made us all stand up. When I saw her at a birthday party at the Croft a few weeks ago, I hadn't been able to fully enjoy the songs, due to being unable to hear a damn word she said. Tonight she is accompanied by a band and sounding totally different. In Violence she glides easily between folky, breathy singing to heavy distorted breaks, and I realised that there can be no comparisons to her heritage here, except that Ms Kemp has inherited her mother's amazing voice and tremendous talent. I still hold that some of the songs really don't need a band. I know she is trying to escape the label pinned on her in early recordings, but sometimes you just need to let your voice shine and adding the band around it just cheapens the sound when they don't really have anything interesting to play. On the whole however, this was a stunning performance.

Geisha's new web site, clearly reflects the band's darkness. I am eagerly awaiting my very own copy of their EP Hymns for the Living Dead, which should tide me over until the album comes next year. This performance was however fraught with problems, mainly because of the band's loudness in such a tiny space. Basically, when you hear Geisha's sound being described as 'frightening', you don't know the meaning of the word until you see the band really possessed by blind rage. So a non-gig really, but a spectacle nonetheless. For more details, see this thread on the Choke forum: today's question is...