The Cube, 29th Jan
'Mate, you can't sit there.' I looked around. 'But -' 'Look, I'm not being pissy, you can't sit there. Health & Safety'n'all that.' Confused, as I hadn't suggested he was being 'pissy' I asked the gentleman to kindly point out exactly where he thought I should sit. The stairs were the only free space. 'I dunno. But you can't sit there.' He cheered up a bit and smiled brightly as he left, comfortable in the knowledge that he'd Done His Bit. We sat back down, on the steps. People kept coming in and as they filled the floor I stole a seat that a latecomer was too late to reach. The lights dimmed, and the show began with a story.
There was an air of inter-webby excitement about this evening. Almost everybody I've met over the last few months through Choke had left their terminals and come out in anticipation of SJ Esau's album launch. The little Microplex was packed to the gills, the sell-out crowd augmented by the bloke on the door's mates (nah mate, it's sold out - ah go on then!) and marred only slightly by the fact that even people I've never met seem to know who I am now. No more secret making fun of them all on the web, now I have to do it in public.
Twocsinak (2 c's in a K) was today represented by ex-postman 'Joe', who played a strange set comprised of tribute songs to the life of the postman and other stories. Most notable was the song where he was joined by two girls from the band male (see the joke there?). One played guitar: 'just play c, d and g, yeah that'll do, I can't sing anyway'. The other was handed a bundle of envelopes as her instrument. 'These are all my payslips, I guess you can ruffle them or hit the desk or something'. Another song had a backing track created entirely from sampling the sound of rubber-band balls of varying sizes being dropped on a desk. In between the songs we are treated to banter and little anecdotes. The music? What did it sound like? You actually want me to try and describe the broken mess of hinted rhythm and melodies that I'm sure my brain made up to make up for the fact that they weren't really there at all? Random samples glued together clumsily and I'm sure with more care than is evident, accompanied by strange noises and poor - but very funny - singing. Twocsinak is very entertaining, confusing, cacophonous, sometimes tuneful, mostly not although the plates of noodles and sardine-packed bar made it all gel in a surreal kind of way.
Rasha Shaheen sings songs. She tries to make it different by playing with a slightly dirty guitar sound. It made me want more, perhaps there were too many distractions and the bar really wasn't the right place for this anymore. More instruments would be good, more variety, more passion and maybe a better venue would have made this more impressive.
SJ Esau once again proved that he is a formidable force in new and exciting music, with a set of old and new numbers. His delay-sampling-singing-repetitive songs were eclipsed by the quality of the newer material, complete with full band. A testament to how having a group of skilled musicians can add more feeling and magic than any electronics. The band gradually got bigger and bigger, one song employed about 8 people improvising on various brass instruments. All-girl lush-folk trio Whale Bone Polly join for another to sing beautiful harmonies. My favourite track remains the Cat song (He's got no balls) with its acoustic folky roots and dramatic dynamic changes. Although it was a very short set, Sam's music remains unique, strange, beautiful and exciting.
