Etai Keshiki (leeds)
...If you haven't seen this band yet I am jealous. To see Etai for the first time is like washing your face with ice cream and meandering haplessly through a gauntlet of bee hives (but in the most pleasurable way). They say their sound has evolved since their last EP "Etai Or Die" and analogies aside, this band surprise with there ever more visceral and robust sound. A combination of noise, hardcore and sludgey grooves, Etai are able to create and destroy before you even have chance to realise it. http://etaikeshiki.bandcamp.com/album/etai-or-die
Castrato Attack Group (leeds)
- "Sloth like dumbo rock"
A relatively new band spawned from the harrowing corners of Leeds. A 3-piece centered around an improvised ethos of freaking out on the tapered feedback from your amp, whilst riding the perpetual inertia of sub-bass surf and groove. Having seen their first gig as a three-piece a month or so ago, we quickly snapped these up on the Big Spaceship ride. CAG includes Luke Vollar of Lanterns and Gav Montgomery of Cissy.
No website yet- they're that new!
Sloth Hammer (leeds)
Here, I shall detail a few quotes about Sloth Hammer:
'Horrifically foul, but somehow fulfilling, and certainly entertaining to watch.' - Joe
'Twas a heavy beast. It has a godflesh / khanate vibe. Hideous' - Matthew
If you were to turn Justin Bieber inside out and plug him into a Sunn amp...it probably wouldn't do much...other than eternally scar millions of thumb-sucking disney tots, nevertheless you see what I'm getting at. Sloth Hammer portray depravity at its lowest point; blood curdling resonances that can implode minds (metaphorically of course) and distinguish any hopes of getting out alive. Circuit-bent, hell-bent and mind-bending electronic doom featuring members from Diascorium. http://www.myspace.com/theslothhammertwo
Black Mantra (wakefield)
Beyond time and space on a small green moon, The Weed Priest smokes. Sending clouds of madness up to blackened skies. Deep chants resonate on wasted plains of crippled landscapes. Sonic boundaries fall from reality as the call of the ancients ring out. The black winged beast is stirred and takes flight!
Disparate drone from the mind's astral plain (via Wakefield).
Come down for a night of cheap thrills, cheap drinks and dense anomalous cloud-like cosmic matter.
Be inside the Fenton for 7:30 or we shall hunt you down with our far superior weaponry.
£2 in.
For more info on this event and any other Big Spaceship wanderings:
email:
bigspaceship@hotmail.co.uk
Star trekking through Leeds' run down fringes, with the looming signs of social decline in the air, I journey to the next BS pit stop @ The Fenton.
Entering the front door I am greeted with hoards of long-haired and bearded metallers soaking up the pre-90's thrash and heavy metal played through the jukebox. The Fenton, I hear, used to be a popular destination for bikers, punks and metalheads decades ago and one can still witness the aftermath of its influence on the misdemeanor and mentality of its present customers. I share affinities to the mentality of these kind of pubs, still reeling off the unquestionable impact these lost eras had on their establishments. I admire its honesty and I feel it's this kind of history that needs to be preserved.
All that aside, I wasn't here to bask in any kind of cultural reminiscence, tonight was about the unearthly vibrations being emitted from above.
First on was newly borne Leeds improv-groovesters CAG (CASTRATO ATTACK GROUP). As I entered the room, I was accosted by a towering tidal wall of high frequency guitar feedback. Before I could pinpoint where I was, the disorientating aggression of the piercing feedback loop was like a clutched hand at your throat, willing you to listen or be asphyxiated where you stand. A plodding down-tempo groove was provided by bass and drums. As i watched, it was as though there was no acceptance of an audience being present, they might as well have being playing to a regimented robot gathering, heads slowly nodding away in unison. Which, incidentally is what the listeners portrayed. Time passed and I found myself staring vacantly into the dark kick drum cavity, the mixture of groove and wailing guitar feedback was hypnotic to my earholes. 30 mins of purely improvised stringent stoner groove, like driving music for the undead.
CAG are Luke Vollar, Gav Montgomery and Phil
Next up were another loud Leeds ensemble that go by the name of ETAI KESHIKI. They represent a particular malevolent dystopian nightmare, where doleys are permitted to get together and release their pent up up frustration on the world. A distant assault on the drums provide a hellish tribal backdrop to the harsh reality protruding from the variegated onslaught of the backline. Etai are a claustrophobic entity on the brink of exploding all over the listeners personal space, but in the nicest possible way. I've witnessed Etai perform in the past, and tonight they treated us to a brand new set, offering a more stunted selection of songs that seem to concentrate their energy to great effect. For circuit bent, sharp sounding black and grey hues of nuance and heavy as fuck riffs with shouty behaviour... Etai fulfil every pocket of your discontent for everything soulless in this world while still harboring a wide grin on your face.
I admire the bands choice to release an EP on a dying format, it aptly sympathises with my growing love of today's anachronistic tendencies.
Their new EP "ETAI OR DIE" is available on cassette tape now.
Email etaikeshiki@hotmail.com to purchase the tape.
Listen online here: http://etaikeshiki.bandcamp.com/album/etai-or-die
Next on the menu were VOM, a Psych-doom offering hailing form Scotland. A contagious more softer doom emanates from the offset of their performance. Lights were turned out and replaced with a slow blinking white light on the stage that reveals fragmented pockets of their movements. A disjointed rhythm from the light throws the headbanger and forces you to close your eyes and concentrate, which I personally have found myself doing more often than not in recent gigs. It is an invitation to be more critical in your listening approach. Psych guitar chords striking, doom-laden bass swelling and marching percussion pounding a visual representation of a birds eye panoramic view of desolate alien topography. Gliding above this topography riding the fire winged griffin, a dead sea comes into view where you spy archaic, ineffable objects emerging and floating eternally in the scorched sun. VOM is the surf music from dead seas.
Rather than fake a detailed description of last band of the night, Pyramidion, I will instead confess to missing the majority of their performance due to getting carried away conversing in the smoking area. I did catch their final 10 mins or so which I very much enjoyed. I heard an indulgent delicacy in this fragment of their performance.. Like a looser construct to the proggy echoes of the 60's and 70's, with bands like Zappa and Yes coming to mind. More Crimson in sound but more psych when one contemplates the more cosmic improvisational approach to their music. I have played in improv orientated bands in the past and find the most difficult thing in composition is controlling the ups and downs in emotional peaks within the live performance. I found Pyramidion executed this well, conducting themselves in a way they would bring their density up and down in quick succession and in unpredictable ways. I highly recommend this band, and hope the next time I see them, I am not cemented to the smoking area!
Great gig coming up at Leeds venue Fenton on 29th May. The gig includes Leeds' noisey punks, Etai Keshiki along with Pyramidion (Glasgow), Vom (Glasgow) and Castrato Attack Group (or CAG).
Etai Keshiki invoke terrors on stage unimaginable to some, especially if you've met them before. They are such a pleasant bunch of individuals, one has to take a step back when witnessing their sensory attacking live performances. A mixture of modded stomp boxes, circuit bent pedals and bespoke electronic devices, Etai conjure a kind of nihilistic macabre that haunts the inner psyche for times to come.
Etai support Scottish jam-psych rockers Pyramidion, ex-members of Moon Unit, Cheer and Old Boy Boom. Listening to their music for the first time the other day, I hear remnants of Hawkwind, Can and, from more modern territory, Carlton Melton. They harbour hypnotic progressions that drag your subconscious mind along a trail of twisted subterranean landscapes, avoiding predictability and the staleness of some 'jam' bands that have attempted similar ideas in the past. An interesting approach to an ethos of composition I very much appreciate and adore.
Another Scottish group travel down with Pyramidion, glamorously entitled: Vom. These guys have a doomy quality to their music that doesn't quite 'feel' like doom, it's almost like if one was to take a balloon representing Doom, and give it to a clown, let him twist it into a shape and call it a 'Vom'. The repetitive quality does make me moist however, and combining this with the fiercely low bulge of the bass guitar and visceral surf guitar warblings I envisage it makes for an interesting live realisation.
CAG (Castrato Attack Group) have been described as a "Dumber than a sack of hammers", a "caveman ugh duo" and "dunderhead grunt band from Leeds". Other than that, I've not been able to find a morsel of music (last.fm doesnt seem to like my prodding). I dare say that I am intrigued though...
So, get down to this feast of Jam/ Psych/ Doom/ Noise and whatever gig. Cause let's face it, what better things have you got to do? Nothing! That's what...
