Live Review –
Fleshlicker, Insatiable Wound, Sword of Damocles, Pale World, EOP.
Centrala, Birmingham, 16.04.24. (All photos by the author)
https://centrala-space.org.uk/
https://fleshlicker.bandcamp.com/merch
https://paleworld.bandcamp.com/music
https://slowmurder.bandcamp.com/music
It is always a treat to come to Centrala for a noise gig. Many of my most memorable gigs have been there. Tonight, the event was held downstairs, the last one that I went to was Knifedoutofexistence which was held in the upstairs gallery.
The first act on was EOP which was two people: a drummer and a guy making noise through machines and pedals. They sparked off each other very well during a long piece that was kept interesting through changes bought by the improvision. The drummer was very good at what he did and completely mesmerising to watch.
I was excited to see Pale World and had high expectations of the project. Sadly my pictures were too dark to use here. However, I’ve reviewed his work on here before, seen him live and my expectations were very high. His set consisted of electronics and contact Microphoned steel sheets. His set started off subtly with slight sounds going off and built up to explosive levels of intense, claustrophobic noise though metal sheets that were hit, scratched and slapped. I am sure there were other electronics involved too. Joe Parkes who organised the gig and does Pale World seemed like an intense guy to talk to - this came through in his set with ease. Melodic instrumentation could eventually be heard and the noise built up again and intertwined with the melody, this made a strong contrast to the explosive, earlier part of the set. Pale World’s set ensured that this is presently one of my favourite UK projects.
I had only heard of Sword of Damocles by name in the past. This set was the technical set out of the lot as he was using a lot of intricate cut-up technique over Harsh Noise, melodic drones and samples in his work. All these elements were continually spliced together and broken up to allow other combinations of the sound to occur. His techniques were rapid so there was a lot of fast movement to his work, this was done very effectively with a lot going off in one set.
Next up was Insatiable Wound, which is another project by Jo of Slow Murder. This set will forever be named ‘Grooving in Green’ in my head, Jo wore all green, had green hair and worked under green light. Despite the March Violets reference, this was pure energetic, top tier harsh noise. There was a lot of Contact Mic, Sandpaper, a bit of head wound and it was very loud. The set was very short, this made it work perfectly, allowed for the high energy and left me wanting more Insatiable Wound and even more Slow Murder. An amazing blast of a set.
I knew nothing of Fleshlicker other than he is otherwise known as UK mastering maestro and distro Foul Prey. My ignorance made the show even better. The strength of the support acts made for a hard line up to follow, this had to be at least good. The lights went off in the venue, all went quiet too, I was unsure what was happening as no one was in the performing area. Suddenly I heard retching sounds and a topless Foul Prey appears dribbling everywhere, stretching out as if he was an undead person from 28 Days later, staring at people, retching, staggering around. “Ugh, Ugh, UGGGGGH!!” was all he did until he staggers up to a huge amplifier and Harsh Noise Wall blasts out and he continues staggering, contorting his body and retching. This was a Mike Dando or Michael 9 level noise performance; I was seriously impressed. This could easily get too samey if repeated too often, so Fleshlicker needs to keep up the progression and conceptualisation to stay this great and keep me this blown away. An outstanding finale.
I couldn’t fault this line up if I tried. These are new times with new champions.
Nothing and Nobody 2024.
No comments:
Post a Comment