21-11-2013 godspeed you! black emperor & Pharmakon - Brixton Academy, London

 Godspeed You! Black Emperor - London

Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Brixton Academy, London, 21/11/13

25 November 2013, 10:31 | Written by Christian Cottingham

It starts with a drone. Twenty minutes of drone, the house lights dimmed and the stage glowing red and everyone – everyone – around me putting earplugs into their ears. For a moment I worry that maybe I should be doing the same – that maybe I should have thought about this a little earlier, given that Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s propensity for volume is pretty much their defining trait – and then I remember that any hearing I had left was obliterated by the support act.

Ah yes – the support act. For most bands being slightly feverish and half-wracked with flu would detract from the live experience: for New York’s Pharmakon it’s pretty much the ideal state. For half an hour Margaret Chardiet charms the Academy with her self-proclaimed power electronics/death industrial tunes, if that’s the right word for a nail bomb collage of machine noise and shrieking rage. It’s not a performance so much as an exorcism, draining and atonal and yet weirdly compulsive – although it’s hard to discern quite where the speaker output ends and the tinnitus kicks in.

True, it’s not for everyone. “What the hell?” exclaims one girl standing nearby. “My girlfriend’s seeing Sigur Rós at Wembley,” says someone else. “Maybe I should have gone with her.”

Quite a few people mention Sigur Rós, actually, particularly during Godspeed’s opening drone – and granted, there are a fair few parallels in the expansiveness of both bands’ sound, in the ebb and swell and space within their songs. But the Icelandic three-piece have a baptismal quality that’s pretty far from Godspeed’s nightmare, from their sociopathic build from lone violin to maelstrom of noise, and whilst the former thrive upon performance the latter seem indifferent to it.

Indeed, with the lighting static and the auditorium black, the eight-piece play pretty much within a circle, their guitarists seated with their backs to the audience, it’s a set that at times feels voyeuristic, as though we’re staring en-masse into a practice session or an intimate gathering of friends. There’s no interaction from any member, no acknowledgement of the 3,000 or so faces fixed upon them and little attempt to fulfil any of the usual tenets of a live show – engage the crowd, make them feel a part – but none of this matters. This is a band that can captivate through sheer sound alone.

Oh sure, there’s the projections – vast backdrops of train journeys and war crimes, of melting objects and stock exchange tickers, the awful and the mundane looped and cut and juxtaposed by twin projectors forging narrative from chaos. They make for a fittingly dystopic accompaniment, even if after a while many of those standing nearby opt to close their eyes and focus on the music.

It deserves their attention. From “Mladic’s” slow descent from mournful strings to frantic riffs through to closer “The Sad Mafioso’s” cinematic sweep theirs is a masterclass in controlled restraint, in tension and release, with every note laden with portent and power. It’s rare for the Academy to be this silent, this expectant: for one hundred minutes our bodies are still but the air crackles with energy, with weight and poise and grace and beauty and ugly, bruised ferocity – and when it’s over few move or even speak until the house lights come up and the crew start clearing the stage.

Later, on the train, people are struggling to process what they just saw. ‘That was…’ starts one guy to his friend, and then gives up. The friend just nods and looks away and the carriage falls to silence.

20-11-2013 Sigur Ros - Brighton

 

SIGUR ROS – BRIGHTON CENTRE, 20th November 2013

With the curtain already up for the headliners, I Break Horses performed their eerie synth pop as silhouettes and were well suited for a support slot to Sigur Ros as the electronica based songs complemented the bigger sound of what was to follow and their “Chiaroscuro” album is likely to receive some positive feedback when it comes out in the New Year.

The aforementioned curtain along with two big screens provided the canvas for the stunning visuals as Sigur Ros opened with “Yfirboro” from new release “Kveikur” – an album which was almost played in its entirety this evening.

Although Sigur Ros are now officially down to a three piece live they have an impressive array of musicians on tour with them so with the addition of a horn section and strings, along with Jonsi’s use of the violin bow on his guitar, the bands studio sound is beautifully recreated whilst backed with the superb animations.

Initially on the big monitors the band themselves were filmed through grainy black and white footage, similar to their recent DVD “Inni” so it wasn’t  until the curtain dropped that they were fully revealed along with a huge curved screen which continued to make this one of the most visually impressive concerts you could wish to attend.

The video footage and lighting are as much a part of the experience as the music itself and as such Sigur Ros have always been well suited to having their songs utilised in TV and radio, having been used for everything from adverts for the RSPCC and Nature Programmes to providing the soundtrack for an Icelandic charity film, following the lives of squatters in a bus shelter.

The soundtrack tendencies also saw each song quite often seemingly blend into the next and with the set list pulling heavily from the new album these were sometimes met with false starts on the applause, but at the same time the fact that Sigur Ros aren’t one of those bands that you necessarily have a favourite song or album the crowd seemed to enjoy the newer material as much as the older songs and each piece of music was met with much love from the onlookers.

The biggest cheers though were still for the tracks from 2005’s album “Takk” and in particular “Glosoli” and “Hoppipolla” – the latter complete with its great music video being projected onto the screens, and continuing to show off how emotionally thought provoking music can be.

Even though frontman Jonsi is a man of few words it was a nice touch when the first track from the encore was dedicated to former label Fat Cat Records as the official line up of the band performed “Agaetis Byrjun” acoustically, before being re-joined by the rest of the live outfit for another beautiful tune bringing the occasion to a close.