The Croft is packed on this fine Friday night, packed
full of people who are desperate to read more of my wonderful gig
reviews, in full black and white on Real Paper. Obviously there are
other writings in the magazine too. The pub is also packed with href="http://www.ttyc.co.uk">Chokers and the usual Friday night
crowd who just wanted to go to the pub, not realising that a full
invasion is in effect.

href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/skip/121291541/" title="Knowledge of
Bugs"> width="240" height="180" alt="Knowledge of Bugs" />

Knowledge of Bugs kicks off proceedings, sitting
behind a table in a scientist's white coat. The table is covered in
technical-looking things a little keyboard with a hundred red
buttons glued on, a piece of circuitry, boxes composed more of knobs and
switches than box and lots of wires. It appears that the coat he wears
is not just for show, because Tom Bugs has made all these things himself
and he is about to take us on a scientific journey of sound
creation.

Here we have a gentle drone created through buzzes and echoing
guitar. There he taps the table and records it to create a beat. While
this is bubbling away nicely through delay and other strange effects
Bugs throws in some home-made slide guitar, a dash of gentle melody with
his voice weaving around the echoing notes. It is captivating to watch
him at work, and the eerie soundscapes created keep you transfixed,
feeling the harmonies and melodies subtly changing, waiting to find out
what happens next, what that box will do, what sound, what
noise, what he will say...

href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/skip/121294232/" title="Knowledge of
Bugs"> width="180" height="240" alt="Knowledge of Bugs" />

Jimi Hendrix wakes me from my reverie. Tom has finished and the
DJ takes over. There will be no continuity of musical styles tonight,
this is a celebration of Choke 's
diversity and its far-reaching involvement with the world of new and
exciting music in Bristol. The magazine reflects this diversity in the
opinions of the writers and styles of music experienced therein.
Hopefully it will address some of the accusations that the Choke
community is elitist and only panders to its mates, but I still have a
housemate who believes we only write about our friends, without even
noticing that most of the music therein is from out of town bands.
Well they must be all noisey noise then he says, but I point
out that there are rock bands, electronic bands, dance music, noise,
punk, heavy metal, acoustic and folky. He picks it up again and starts
to read. I don't know what anyone can do to address this. It's only an
internet thing. It's not even like the forum's more important. The music
is important.

href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/skip/121295554/" title="North Sea
Navigator"> src="http://static.flickr.com/49/121295554_6b52a5d32c_m.jpg" width="240"
height="180" alt="North Sea Navigator" />

It has been a long time since I first encountered North
Sea Navigator at the Polish club right after a bad break-up and my
first ever Choke-related gig. Tonight they are on a mission to be the
best they've ever been. Although the added volume drowns out the cello a
bit, the three vocalists are loud and clear, the harmonium is
delightfully menacing and the songs from the album Make The
Blacklist are edgy, beautiful, driving, and much more dance-able
than they've been before. While I'm finding it difficult to describe
just how good this gig was, at the time of writing a week later the song
Aileen Wuornos is still reverberating around my skull with its
great rhythm and angst-ridden melody.

href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/skip/121300423/"
title="3hostwomexicansandatinofspanners"> src="http://static.flickr.com/55/121300423_f931fcae76_m.jpg" width="180"
height="240" alt="3hostwomexicansandatinofspanners" />

The genres swing off at another tangent when href="http://www.myspace.com/3hostwomexicansandatinofspanners">3hostwomexicansandatinofspanners hit their first chord, with
epic heavy guitar rock giving way to furiously paced speed riffing. The
two guitarists share vocal duties stroke shouting matches but the words
don't matter - it's the delivery, the rhythm of the words exploding out
of their mouths and how it fits with the music stopping and starting
behind it. The rock-metal-punk waxes and wanes, it builds to shrieking
hysteria with great timing and breaks down to almost funky rock before
the next hilarious assault. The musical term 'con fuoco' springs to
mind, which I always imagined to mean 'like fuck' although really it
means like fire. Later I discover through searching the internet that
they are just as good on record. Definitely one to add to the growing
list of discoveries through Choke...

href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/skip/121305987/" title="Antoni
Maiovvi"> src="http://static.flickr.com/41/121305987_a94ea30d12_m.jpg" width="180"
height="240" alt="Antoni Maiovvi" />

The evening is closed by a set of Euro techno trance disco horror
courtesy of Antoni Maiovvi, A.K.A. My Ambulance Is On
Fire A.K.A. art noise metal group Geisha front man. This is no normal DJ
set, the music comes out of a laptop and Antoni has all his guitar
pedals laid out next to it. While the music kicks off, he is twiddling
knobs and pushing buttons. A microphone is clasped to his chest, the
crescendo begins to build and slowly it lifts...

href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/skip/121308680/" title="Antoni
Maiovvi"> src="http://static.flickr.com/35/121308680_0c7a8ac8cf_m.jpg" width="180"
height="240" alt="Antoni Maiovvi" />

The scream when it comes fills the space that is usually reserved for
the boring old snare / crash build up. It reverberates round the music,
filling all the spaces, distorted and resonating to my very core. While
he is screaming I know of nothing else. When he stops, I cannot imagine
how the scream sounded and the music seems to be all the more uplifting
because of it. As the set continues, we are treated to different forms
and sounds of screaming over dance music, the like of which I have never
encountered before and will probably never encounter again. There is
talk of a CD though.

I buy two copies of the magazine since obviously I am proud to find
myself in print and the GF wants a copy for her house. Something to
add to the CV, I think and begin to read. The quality of writing is
excellent, considering that most of us are just people who love music,
write about loving music and argue endlessly about why we love music.
Available in all good shops now!