capac / Sun Drums / Loved Ones / The Hive Collective / John McGrath / Absense / Joe Pettersen / Jonny Davis @ Kazimier - 13.01.12

Everisland’s ‘13’ at the Kazimier. Friday the 13th. It’s unlucky for some and so I was running late most of the day due to a Merseyrail power outage, but luckily so were Ever Island’s ‘13’ festivities. I thankfully made it to the Kazimier well in time to catch the opening short films courtesy of the excellent Tea and Two Slice…

It was the first time that the film club had brought its genius concept (intelligent cinema plus free tea and toast for everyone) from its usual venue of Wolstenholme Creative Space to a club night format and the transition was eased by the Kazimier’s old community theatre style layout with the auditorium steps serving as handy seats for the early-arrivers. Holding Tea and Two Slice in a club did mean that the usual full feature presentation had to be cut down to a more flexible sequence of shorts but that didn’t matter because the selection was excellent! There was an experimental film from avant-garde sixties filmmaker, Arthur Lipsett; a haunting stop motion animation from Amelie director, Jean-Pierre Jeunet; and a hilarious thirties cartoon named ‘Bimbo’s Initiation’ (definitely worth looking up on youtube).

First band of the night were Supercell, a young minimalist electronica set up consisting of two guitars and a bass, who have forgone the need of a drum kit by opting for a laptop and a floor full of effects. The trio prove to be competent musicians with an impressive mastery of the technology they use although it’s difficult to look past an overbearing Radiohead influence; the opening number’s bass line strays a little too close to The National Anthem. This isn’t to say that Supercell are a second rate rip-off and their singer quite easily matches the vocal agility of Thom Yorke. The reverb soaked guitars are pretty lush but when the songs cut back to the bass it becomes evident just how dependant the band are on backing tracks and they could well inject a lot more energy into their set with a synth player and maybe even a drummer. A broadening of musical influences may be in order if this talented group is to avoid future Radiohead comparisons and get noticed, but it was refreshing to see them come into their own during the long instrumental number with which they finished.

Next up was Magic Youth Club, or what was supposed to be Magic Youth Club. From what I understand, the band is usually a duo but one of their members didn’t turn up for some reason or another leaving a lone guitarist to play a last-minute makeshift set which turned out to be my surprise highlight of the night. What he played I would describe as digitally enhanced acoustic blues. It is always quite remarkable when a solitary singer-songwriter manages to hold a large audience for a full twenty minutes, so it is even more to his commendation that he managed to do it without vocals. The virtuoso dropped a whole bag of Newton Faulkner-esque tricks, knocks, taps and harmonics with an added dimension of chorus effects and pneumatic drill delay. It’s difficult to imagine how an extra member could contribute to a richer sound. The set was polished off with an entertaining instrumental rendition of a Stevie Wonder tune.

The band I was really looking forward to seeing was Loved Ones, a highly recommended act which were billed as ‘Folktronica’. What that means in English is conventionally written folk pop songs wrapped in a thick layer of synth and electronic beats. The band opened with an abstract-leaning instrumental but it was the more structured ‘Magic’ which was the stand out song of the set with a concise melody, a decent chorus and a glockenspiel. The musicianship is of a high level and on the couple of songs that feature live drums a more creative jazz style is chosen over the more obvious rock beat. Despite the Loved Ones’ experimental side and beneath the swirling electronica, songs that feature straight piano chords, a strummed guitar and polished harmonies make up the brunt of the set. To my disappointment, the set dragged a little and drew into something of an anticlimax. The conventional songs that lie at the core of the set lacked the hooks needed to keep an audience captivated. I suspect that without the mask of technology the latter part of the set would appear very oatmeal indeed.

Capacity peaked by the time Sun Drums came to the stage. I have to admit that I struggle to maintain my objectivity through the wave of class hatred I experience when a very young band rolls out a set up which combined, costs more than my house. Sun Drums play a kind of atmospheric down-tempo electronica through two iMacs, a series of drum and synth pads, a straight out of the box shiny Fender Jazzmaster, and a whole floor full of other goodies. It is undeniable that with that much hardware you can make an overwhelmingly affective sound. At some points parts of the theatre physically shook, and I particularly enjoyed the drum breaks which had the icy solitary feel of a Martin Hannett record. The problem is that these rare glimmers of brilliance are so deeply imbedded within loosely structured, repetitive, walking-pace songs that the audience was largely too anaesthetized to enjoy them. Each of the band’s members were excellent singers but their voices and any lyrical content were lost among the vast swirl of noises. The vocals were so distorted that even the between-song banter was rendered indecipherable. I expect that this music may be more accessible on record with the benefit of a few studied replays but to ask that amount of patience of a new fan comes across as self-indulgent live. At the better moments, Sun Drums are rich, delicate and exciting, but for the most part the set seemed to consist of three men having a lot of fun with their toys at the expense of the audience, who were totally lost. I spotted one couple playing football with a beer can and my own girlfriend fell asleep.

In contrast, Capac were a far more upbeat bunch. Another trio, and more synths and delayed guitars, the difference is Capac are far more dance-orientated than all of the previous acts. This was a welcome change but it only partially dragged the crowd out of their slumber; there were definite head nods and even a few people dancing. The building rhythms run dangerously close to cliché at times but having a strummed nylon-string guitar over the top is an affective innovation. Again, vocals were very sparse during this set so there was very little for the audience to latch on to and I feel that much of the band’s energy was wasted having appeared so late after so many down tempo bands. I could easily see Capac going down well at a dance festival, or in the midst of other similar bands, but at the end of a long night in front of an audience which hasn’t fully recovered from a string of slower acts the atmosphere was less than conducive.

Despite my aversion to a couple of the bands, Ever Island had furnished their event very well; an entertaining interval was provided by the Hive Collective in which a creepy ghost handed out hexes. As well as the short film show, Ever Island’s attention to detail and their embrace of diverse forms of creativity is well worth the five pound admission fee alone. ‘13’ had an excellent turn out and on the whole the night has to be regarded as a success. Even with the large crowd numbers, with such a massive bill and such low admission fees, Ever Island is one of the few Liverpool promoters who are truly putting more into the struggling music scene than what they are getting out of it. The unusual format of this event compels punters to stick around and make a night of it rather than just going home after seeing the band they’re rooting for, and hopefully this will generate interest for local bands, if not other forms of local art.

The only problem with this night was that the mellow euphoria required to enjoy some acts collided with the lively dance feel needed for others. The lesson that should be learnt from the ‘13’ gig is that electronic music is a vast spectrum of different genres, some of which don’t gel very well on the same night.

Go to Man Gone Splat for more pictures and a video of the loved one.

Words: Joey Smith

Photography: Chris Everett

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