Automatic Lovers Tour @ ICA

Automatic Lovers Tour with Heartbreak & Little Boots
ICA
21st November

Tonight the ICA showcases two of the most promising electro pop acts of this year. First up are the Argentinean/Anglo outfit Heartbreak. There music has been described as “Metalo” which could possibly be the worst genre name since “shroomidelica”. But for their sake please ignore that title. By taking the sheen of Italian disco and mixing it with darker elements, Heartbreak have created a sound that is currently getting certain secions dance scene hot under the collar. Heartbreak’s intense music is complimented perfectly by frontman Sebastian Muravchik. His dominating stage presence gives the band a hypnotic quality, perfectly combined constant flash of strobes. While certain sections of the audience may have found this jarring, you get the impression that’s exactly the kind of response Heartbreak wish to inspire. Experimental without being pretentious, Heartbreak certainly remaining intriguing.

Next up was Little Boots. It’s fair to say that things are going pretty well for the diminutive star at the moment. Currently finding her self the pop star du jour of several blogs and working with Hot Chip’s Joe Goddard. With such a monumental amount of hype to deliver you’d be forgiven in presuming the former Death Disco singer may fall flat. However Little Boots take’s all this in her, predictably small, stride. At this point the now rammed ICA was enraptured by Little Boots and her set of irresistible electro pop gems didn’t fail to live up to the hype. Recent single ‘Stuck On Repeat’ is a definite highlight, the Moroder-esque melody seems to still be engrained in my ears.
The sounds of Italo Disco seem to have sprung up in a number of London clubs recently and tonight’s artists hint that the sound may just be about to explode in a big way. If the music can keep to this standard, that’ll be fine with me.

TV On The Radio @ Shepards Bush

TV On The Radio / The Big Pink
Shepards Bush Empire
19th November.

The Big Pink shuffle on to the stage nervously, they needn’t have. While sharing a stage with TVOTR must be daunting for a band still very much in their infancy, they clearly have the gusto to pull it off. Spearheaded by Merok records Milo Cordell and former Alec Empire protégé Robbie Furse they tear through their short set. Evoking Spacemen 3 & Animal Collective, The Big Pink are currently creating quite the buzz in London. If they continue to develop at their current pace they may well deliver one of the key debut’s of 2009.

TV On The Radio have the audience in the palm of their hands from the opening chords of Young Liars. Lead singer Tunde Adebimpe’s impeccable delivery causes bouts of hypnotic rapture throughout the audience. Tonight we get a set comprising of the bulk of Dear Science. In a live environment the songs take on a far more visceral quality, the raw bassline in Dancing Choose particularly is extenuated and reverberates the Empires aged walls. A punky run through of Wolf Like Me receives a particularly ecstatic response. While he maybe one of the most envied and in demand producers on the planet at the moment, Dave Sitek seems quite content to take a back seat in TVOTR’s live show, manically shaking the wind chimes that sit on the neck of his Telecaster.

Concluding the set with a sped up Staring At The Sun proves to be a popular choice. Could TV On The Radio take on the unthinkable? A critic’s favourite who know exactly how to work a crowd??

Yo? Anyone???

You know when you’re just in the mood to do something and nothing will put you off? Last night I went to see Yo Majesty! at Bar Rumba. I was originally meant to catch them at Barfly, but the guest list was too full for the likes of me. Since it was a late start I decided to head home to my new place in Homerton, while I will miss Dalston the constant smell of Dixy Chicken emanating in my hall was becoming too much to bear. Plus have you ever tried walking up Kingsland Road on a Saturday? Fuck that. So after preparing some pork stir fry with broccoli and pak choi, a couple glasses of wine and an episode of the office I was starting to enter an extremely tempting comfort zone. But no! My mission for the day was to review Yo Majesty and my god was I going to achieve it. I picked up my copy of Everything by Simon Price (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Everything-about-Manic-Street-Preachers/dp/0753501392) and a precious can of Duff energy drink and headed for the door.

Despite my housemate’s fair well statement of “I’d rather be doing anything else than leaving the house at 11pm”, I remained positive. I have a fairly high constitution for these kind of challenges, I once got a coach to London at 6 in the morning after having no sleep and went straight to filming a music video that didn’t end till 8pm. Granted I felt like turd afterwards, but I still did it. My view is if your mind is fully prepared, you can easily complete tasks like this.

So I started my route to the train station. My plan was:

· Get the overground from Homerton to Highbury & Islington.
· Jump on the Central Line to Tottenham Court Road.
· Walk to Bar Rumba in time for gig, watch gig, leave.
· Catch 242/38/whatever came along first, walk home.


I braved the slight rain and walked to the train station. No trains, urrrrgh. It was here I hit the wall of hesitation. Should I bother? What if it rains? What if I get mugged? But I knew what had to be done. I pulled my hood tighter and headed to Mare St. After a brief walk and one desperate chase, I made it on to a bus.

Bus rides are generally boring so I won’t go into great detail. Although there was a bunch of Goths at the back arguing whether or not Manowar are a joke band, I’m gonna go with yes. Right so after a brief walk I make it to Bar Rumba, guestlist is fine. The girl asks if I have a plus one, I look down and give an ashamed negative nod. The venue itself is a dimly lit basement that’s half full, I glance for clock check and it’s nearly midnight. I get a glass of water from the bar and try and pull off the ‘alone but not a sex pest look’. I spot Hervé amongst the crowd but couldn’t really think of a worthy conversation starter, I knew something like “Hey, I know you” wouldn’t cut it in this kind of venue.

It was at this moment I became slightly worried. It was 00:15 and I hadn’t seen any member of Yo Majesty, I’d also exhausted the fun potential of the solitaire game on my phone. At half past I threw in the towel and left. This may seem like a hugely pointless evening to you, but at least I made myself proud. Kind of.

Unduhground

A valid point.

But, correct me if I'm wrong Mr. British Airways, I don't believe you can smell it from a plane either.

Well done America...