Battery Operated
Orchestra/The Department/Jan Doyle Band/Brutalist Architecture
In The Sun
Hope and Anchor,
London - 9 July 2016
"An
eclectic and really rewarding night of new electronic music"
This
evening came under the banner of Synth Club (previously known as
Analogue Nights), a series of irregular gigs with DJs, courtesy of The
Department's Rob Green; who has been doing a lot to support,
promote
and expand the underground electronic music movement in the UK (and
elsewhere) in the last couple of years.
Brutalist Architecture In The
Sun first caught my attention last year when a
recommended video for their song Basildon
that popped up on
YouTube. Seems I'd caught them still near the start of their
adventures, with only a
handful of tracks released online to date, with tonight being their
live
début. Started by Dean Clarke, BAITS, or 'Brutalist' as I prefer to
shorten them as, have recently added Cye Thomas as lead vocalist.
I immediately fell in love with their name and so
wanted them
to sound as good as their name suggested they might be. Thankfully,
they pretty much were. Their
style is one of austere minimal wave/coldwave made with some
magnificent synth sounds. But whereas a lot of that stuff can sometimes
be a bit too self-conciously po-faced, there's a sense of wonder and
joy behind much of Clarke's writing that keeps this from getting
morose. If you like your early The Human League then you need to check
this out.
As live débuts go, this delivered aplenty. Chatting to Thomas
afterwards, his background is in the indie rock world and tonight was
his first electronic scene gig. And he'd loved it. He was energised by
every other band on the bill and had been firmly converted. Brutalist's
first album Concrete Pop
has just been released and is well worth
seeking out.
Brutalist Architecture In The Sun setlist: Slaves, Towers, Dead
Friends, Two Horses, When Is It Better?, Running On Empty, Do We Ever
Know The End?
Photos
[L-R]: Brutalist Architecture In The Sun x 2, The Department
The
Department have been steadily doing their thing for last
couple of
years. Making an immediate splash with a rather swanky video for their 'once heard, not forgotten' single As If Transformed,
releasing a noteworthy début, Alpha,
last year and contributing a new track to the recent Synth Wave Vol. 1
compilation on Electro London Records.
Work is under way on a follow-up to Alpha, and what
makes this already
welcome news even more tantalising is that Cliff Chapman, former
original member and main synth guru of 80s almost-stars Naked Lunch,
joined The Department earlier this year.
Still, what all this means for you, dear reader, is that not only do
you have relative newcomers The Department to enjoy but their
contribution to the electronic music scene can only be enhanced further
by Chapman's contribution who, it has been confirmed, is already
co-writing with Green and Lindstrom for the second album (due in a few
months time).
Tonight was the first time I'd seen this expanded, three-man lineup and
given one of my comments in a previous review was that I thought the
band would benefit from an additional live member – well, I'm chuffed
they've been so obliging!
Clearly Chapman is still finding his feet in the new role and is
picking up parts that he's had no hand in writing, but there's a nice
symmetry to the band live now with frontman Green flanked by two quiet
synth types either side. Albeit Lindstrom still looks like The
Terminator – it's a good look.
This was a rock solid set, with the live arrangements of the recorded
songs sounding already fairly bedded in despite having to adapt them
for the additional live synths. This project is progressing nicely and
with the recent sneak preview of a new song online suggesting that the
vocals are going heading in a more ambitious direction, there's a lot
to like about The Department.
The Department setlist: Don't
Give Up, Glass Houses, Not For You, Days
Of Liberty, Slow Down, This Be The Verse, As If Transformed, When
You're Not There
Photos
[L-R]: Battery Operated Orchestra x 3
Battery Operated Orchestra
were largely new to my ears. I knew only a
couple of tracks but had heard only good things about them live so was
looking forward to this baptism. Their stylish videos impressed and
demonstrated that attention to detail in presentation was important to
them. It's not surprising that they've been given airplay on BBC Radio
6. On songs like Diamond
Feelings they neatly straddle the gap between the
underground and the more mass potential of the likes of La Roux.
Unfortunately, both for the band and the audience, the in-house sound
engineer at the Hope and Anchor was clearly having difficulties. The
net result must have been irritating for the band, they had to
acknowledge the issue and apologised for any negative impact, which
there undoubtedly was. But that did not affect the impression they
made, which was positive.
That visual aspect from their videos was present live both in the
backing videos used throughout their set to the wrap-around synth
stand, and BOO branded ghost figure lighting around the stage.
Everything said professional. So, gutting then that only weakness,
again through no fault of the band themselves, was with the sound. Even
so, the merit of the songs (check out some of those titles) was still
apparent beyond the technical
issues.
Battery Operated Orchestra setlist:
Queen Mary's Funeral
March, Fluoro Sushi, New Town, Radiation, The Sea,
Diamond Feelings, Wish List, Tin Can Telephone, Fairy Tale,
Unjustifiable Transfer
Last on stage tonight were Jan
Doyle Band. Which, if you're not already
familiar with them, you could be forgiven for thinking that they were
some god-awful local pub rock act. The reality couldn't be further
removed. Brainchild (for indeed JDB is a brainchild) of one Derek
Anthony Williams who resides in Doncaster, where he fosters the
regional electronic scene via his ironically-entitled Doncaster
Electronic Foundation or DEF, putting on gigs and running his own radio
show.
I recall receiving links to demo material by JDB a couple of years
back. I cheekily quizzed Williams on the band name – explaining that
I'd never clicked beyond the name to explore the sound on account of
the name being terrible. Williams explained that it comes from a far
greater concept, where the Jan Doyle Band feature in an entire
fictional SF universe. Unusual indeed. Having then 'got' the concept
behind the name, I'd only heard them online. So, this too, was my first
opportunity experiencing them live.
Photos
[L-R]: Jan Doyle Band x 3
As good as some of the recorded writing was, kinda proto-EBM, made with
minimal and minimalist analogue synths, the live incarnations took the
music to another level. Having Williams as your front man helps.
Looking like a wasted teenager who barely gets out in the daylight,
possibly on account of reading way too many 2000AD comics in a dingy
and grim bedroom. On stage, he properly inhabits a character which may,
or may not, come from the fictional universe in which Jan Doyle Band
also reside.
Aside from the occasional synth slaps, knob twiddling and mischievous
noise generation, Williams prowls around the stage and out into the
audience, rarely looking at anyone directly, instead being wrapped up
in his own inner universe where Jan Doyle Band has a significance
beyond the mortal coil the rest of us were watching from. Lurking in
the shadows was Michael Stokes on keyboards, ensuring there was a
decent amount of music being performed live whilst Wiliams was out
doing his thing.
My weakness for the JDB was due in no small part to some proper, old
school, full analogue synth triggering going on. This was art-concept,
minimal synth music, yet never sounded pretentious. There's little
concern about 'winning over' audiences at a JDB gig. But
neither was it the disregarding of them that you sometimes get with
bands. (Those that appear to have nothing but disdain for their
audiences – as if they were a necessary evil of performing live.)
Rather JDB present their concept as much as theatre as they do a 'band
playing a gig'.
Sadly, once again due to limited train options, I had to bail merely
twenty minutes into JDB's set (meaning I never did get to hear their
cover version of Sarah Brightman and Hot Gossip's I Lost My Heart To A
Starship Trooper.) But the 20 minutes I did get was all I needed to
hear to know that it was mistake to have left it so long seeing them
live. I hope I don't have to wait much longer before I can spend a full
evening in their deliriously weird company.
Jan Doyle Band setlist: Ron,
My Life With Her, Newsreel Cities/Ghost
Rider (Suicide cover), Oblivion/Burn You, The Within, Noble, Fighters, I Lost My Heart
To A Starship Trooper (Sarah Brightmand and Hot Gossip
cover)
From start to finish, this was an eclectic and really rewarding night
of new electronic music. 8/10
Rob Dyer
Review:
Rob Dyer
Photos: Tanya Rafferty