Hype Williams
Having watched Hype Williams develop over the last two years from an interestingly subversive duo, creating their own myths as they went and cherry-picking the most unusual parts of British dance music history for their own unknowable purposes, into one of the most impressive and downright important musical acts in the world right now has been deeply exciting. Appearing onto a typically foggy stage lit by countless strobe lights (and accompanied by a model perched silently and suggestively on a motorbike stage left), their control of atmosphere and aesthetic is stunning. Blunt sits at a desk covered in equipment while Copeland commands the centre of the stage, her movements staggered by the incessant strobes. The music is dark and heavy, occasionally cracking open with a hint of melody or being pummelled by some insanely powerful beat. Blunt’s control – again, that word – is everything, challenging the audience and giving them something they had no idea they wanted at a time they could never have expected. It’s a spectacle of the highest order, a rare show that manages to feel immaculate in conception and execution as well as fraught with risk and danger in every note. Hype Williams make big music that suffers no compromise and they are reaching ever bigger audiences, even as their music gets weirder. Where they go from here is anyone’s guess.
Gnod
Gnod sound like psychedelic horseshit. Not the band, but like, the actual thing itself. They make spaced out krautrock that burbles in every beat with a rambunctious sense of fun and engagement. It’s a mess but it’s beautiful in its own utterly unique way. Noise, dub, motorik, rock, it all comes together under the shamanic party vocals. There’s probably no point at all trying to understand what the hell is going on onstage but the weirdly feelgood sewer party noise certainly woke up these tired ears on Sunday afternoon.
Justice Yeldham
Performing under the name Justice Yeldham, Lucas Abela plays a mic’d up shard of glass with his mouth. He plays it much like a trumpet, blowing and spluttering on the edge of the glass until it eventually disintegrates in his hands. While past performances have been a (literal) bloody mess, Sunday’s outing is considerably more tame. Interspersing the huge noise his instrument makes with a distinct sense of humour, you get a palpable sense of contrast. Audience interaction is key, opening up the performance to the room and making the entire experience about much more than the sound coming out of the speakers. But as much as that is the case, Abela also plays his instrument in a very considered way, approaching it as a musician and not simply as something which makes noise. His grasping at dynamics and texture is just as important as his lager swilling and joke making. When he asks “Any requests?”, all responses are comical (i.e. no one asks for a Merzbow cover). He ends up playing a rendition of Ba Ba Black Sheep, highlighting again how the divide between innocence and danger is only a shard of broken glass thick.
Tim Hecker
It’s always going to be difficult to follow up a masterpiece. Hecker’s Ravedeath, 1972 is a masterpiece that feels important in a way that few records do. Something about the scale of it, the sound of the organ, the overtones and the distortion, it’s difficult to describe but it is a standout achievement from a musician not short on great albums in his back catalogue. It was interesting then to see him introduce new sounds into this set, opening and closing with a piano attack unlike anything he’s done before. Given a sharp attack, the hammering chords clumped together into a wildly discordant drone that seemed to burst with negative energy. Some sound issues in the set were clearly not to his liking, and the integration of two guitar amps didn’t seem quite as smooth as it might, but nonetheless it was exciting to see a performer with almost nothing to prove pushing himself and taking new risks with new material. The sounds from Ravedeath went down a treat, as ever, but the hints at future developments were the real highlight here.
Body/Head
Kim Gordon is a figure of intense interest across a host of musical and artistic scenes. As much as her fame with Sonic Youth has made her an icon for alt-leaning (eternal) teenagers the world over, her ability to keep one foot in the modern art scene has given her a high cultural cachet that eludes many “crossover” artists of her ilk. It’s this side of her work that she bring to Body/Head, a duo with experimental guitarist Bill Nace. Their set is more akin to an art happening than a traditional gig, with all the positive and negative elements that go along with that association. On one hand it is exciting to experience something happening in the present moment; it feels risky and tremulous, always on the edge of falling apart or develops into something immersive. Unfortunately, this performance fell apart a little too often for comfort, feeling directionless and light for long periods. Occasionally it did all come together for impressive, if fleeting, moments and the potential for really engaging performance is definitely there, it just didn’t quite work out this time. I’d definitely go see it again though.
My Disco
Due to a clash with Body/Head, we only caught the last half of the Australian post-punks’ set. If you’re not familiar, My Disco are something like Slint if Slint were more interested in throbbing Berlin techno and strobe lights. Their sound is immediately engaging, using modulating rhythms between the drums and bass to draw the body into a trance before shattering the peace with sharp stabs of metallic guitar. Vocals are more like chants than anything and their songs are often drawn out to increase the dramatic effect of their dynamic intent. In a live situation, the power of their sound is less contained, becoming wilder beneath the high ceilings of the Old Library. Where other loud bands had faded in that large space, My Disco filled it to bursting point with noise, taking full advantage of the unusual setting. The visuals flickering into white shapes on black void combined with the strobe lighting to make it an intense experience for all the senses.
