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Monday, 20 February 2017

Sutcliffe Jugend Live Plus MORE, Club Kolis, February 3rd, 2017



Club Kolis is an old club in the Archway area of London, the aged dark atmosphere was fitting for the gig. Upon arrival Robin Chuter had some excellent pen and ink drawings on display, these were on A3 sized paper and others sprawled over record covers. The work was good to see and more can be seen here.




First act was a Belgian project called In Search of Death, named after the seminal Atrax Morgue release. This is the project of Xavier H who runs Death Continues Records of whom I own a release by their excellent Nekrofellatio project. Xavier constructed an impressive, intense passage of sound through his laptop and effects. 
Next up was who I came to see ACL, aka Antichildleague. I am very familiar with their releases, but didn’t know what to expect in a live context. ACL proceeded to deliver a sonic tantrum of a performance heightened by a throwback to the extreme emotional context of the project’s classic debut Hellworm. Samples and noises were shot through lines of effects. Battered, Miked up cymbals were whipped and hit with chains to give shattered eruptions over the electronic hell. ACL delivered a conceptually loaded, highly strung, vicious display of violent electronics. 

The incredibly pissed off Dead Normal shuffled up the variety even more. They used Power Electronics with blasts of distortion working as Beats. The male vocals were sarcastic demonstrating shitty attitude, the female vocals were cutting, clear, very angry and cold. The sheer assault of Dead Normal is intrusive, fucking horrible and hateful. The combative, relentless sonic abuse of the electronics provided an abusive backing. This was an ugly, nasty sound, the vocals taunted, accused, exposed hypocrisy and because of that, they did a good job. Dead Normal works well as a whole, I was left with a lot to think about, this was an impressive London debut. 


The Black Scorpio Underground dragged things down to the abyss. They gave the most hellish performance of the night. The candle lit setting ensured Joe Truck Kasher delivered a ritualistic display of noise, he chanted hysterically; whipping himself into a frenzy with a shredding display of sound that seemed freshly churned from the bowels of hell. I’ve heard many of Kasher’s projects, but BSU in a live context and on record is very impressive. 


Sutcliffe Jügend were synchronized through their matching clothes, this gave that extra touch. I’d heard some earlier material, but didn’t know what to expect in a live context. Their set rumbled around in complex layered lower frequencies with massive eruptions of sound. Paul Taylor’s digital guitar work was impressive, building up a structured impressive set. This wasn’t what I expected, it wasn’t instant, it had a slow build up, it was incredibly layered and there were a lot of intricacies woven into the sound. Rather than just massive displays of rage, there seemed a wide range of emotions happening beyond the usual. Their final track Shame build up towards an explosive sonic climax.

Choppy Noodles 2017

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