This is my first Glitch Night although it is their third, and so I arrive at the Arc Bar somewhat prematurely. I might think that 9pm on a school night is early, but the glitchy electronica types apparently do and so I try to read my book (Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell) in the dark while old keyboards and laptops are plugged in and wires are untangled.
First up is Loxodonta, who sets up some sort of keyboard loop using his moog synth. There is an echoing dungeon feel in the dark room as the layers build up. He sings and screams. When he screams the air stands up on the back of my neck and it sounds like distant monsters howling for blood or tortured souls in forgotten dungeons. There are breaks for knob-twiddling and more layer building before the next bout of scariness, but the performance is ended prematurely by a feedback disaster. Sorry, are you finished? The soundguy asks. Yeah, why not?, says Lox.
Glow are bass, guitar, vocals and a mad looking drum-creating box. They play rousing guitar-based songs, with fast electronic weird dance music beats. I say weird, because they're not your usual pounding bass drum / hi hat dance beats, oh no. They use all sorts of strange percussion sounds/instruments to build the rhythms. The bass lines are great, all their heads are moving and the band are really into what they're doing. But it leaves me a bit cold, probably because it all seemed a bit too like club-music-with-guitars and the singing doesn't seem to fit. Might be better on record.
It's been about two years since I last saw Gusset and it is good to note that while the inherent anarchy in the beats remains, the set as a whole is tighter and more flowing. The jungle/grindcore based rhythms are better pulled together making for some really interesting and head shaking syncopation. There are chunks of well-known songs that have had their very soul ripped out and given a new lease of life with broken beats and effect sweeps. People are smiling, chatting and even dancing, which is a first for a Gusset gig as far as I'm aware. Favourites include a messed up Hazy Shade of Winter, bits of War of the Worlds and John Peel saying 'Gusset'.
Conclusions? Fear, pain, resentment, laughter, noise, bass, beats, mashup, alcohol, late night, bed.
Gaah! Stupid spam module deleted the two comments! Lost forever... still, It'll teach me to keep a closer eye on what's going on!