Phoning it in

Dispatches from the back of the venue

RIYL: Seefeel

  • Maria Somerville

    Maria Somerville

    We last saw Maria Somerville in a support slot with My Bloody Valentine last year and, in spite of playing to an enormodome filling up with punters getting their pre-gig beers in and adjusting their earplugs awaiting the loudest band in the galaxy, she managed to grab the attention of the audience – no mean feat – and I made a mental note to catch a headline show.

    So here we are in Leeds, always a treat to visit the friendly, inclusive and convivial Brudenell. As ever, even on a rainy Monday, it’s a hive of activity. Students and locals mingle in the public bar, there is a boisterous free gig on in the front room, and in the community room support act Nashpaints is getting a more rarified and studious atmosphere going. The audience are, thank goodness, in listening mode. Nashpaints is a solo act (Finn Carraher McDonal) who has been getting rave reviews from the wonderfully verbose reviewers at Boomkat who assure us “mad hype on this one”- and while his rather understated performance with guitar and laptop isn’t exactly ‘The Who Live at Leeds’, musically it’s an intriguing mix of Panda Bear looping, Durutti Column guitar figures and MBV style melodic noise. Great album too – have a listen.

    Maria Somerville is in 3 piece formation tonight with a drummer and hooded bass player – the lights are, and remain white, static and backlit so the focus is on silhouettes rather than Maria and her band. Mood set, we swing into some slow burning drones and feedback before gradually getting into ‘Garden’ from new LP ‘Luster’. My first thought is how much I like the driving bass playing from the hooded figure – it puts me in mind of The Cure ‘Disintegration’ era. The reverb drenched vocals and shoegazey guitars are all present and correct –  however, what sets Maria and her band apart is they do it brilliantly and there is enough edge, personality and intriguing melodicism to reel you in. It helps that Maria has an appealing voice – perhaps informed by her interest in Irish traditional music and Folk. She can also deftly switch from some splendidly loud Loop or Spacemen 3 style fuzz pedal bliss outs, to hushed ambient vocal pieces with minimal backing that remind me of Grouper or Cocteau Twins, to just getting down and working with Fx pedals and loops and conjuring up some soundscapes.

    If anything, the band are a bit of a power trio and much more amped up than on the more ambient and dreamy ‘Luster’ album and I really like the sound they make together – the live experience is different to the record but – let’s boil it down to this:  Expansive, immersive, smart and tuneful – get into Maria Somerville.

  • Quade & Hedgehog

    Quade & Hedgehog

    I first encountered Bristol band Quade at one of Now Wave’s always excellent ‘Mood Swings’ new music showcases back in 2023. They were on early so I missed the start but was completely reeled in by the hushed and intense atmosphere they had created in the room. At the time they were promoting their debut record and had a tape deck playing a recording of the late Andy Weatherall being interviewed about his youth (the track ‘Circles’) being cut in and out of a righteous, post-rock racket. Right up my street. I made a vow to make sure I caught a full live set and here they are, headlining at The White Hotel – normally a venue for transgressive all night ravers that like to party til 7am but also doubles as a home for the more outré live music fayre before 11pm. Someone has laid out some tables and chairs and candles to create a Post-rock supper club vibe. Nice!

    Support comes from local act Hedgehog. They’re quite something. They veer from hushed, delicate folk-infused lullabies, to tumbling free-improv craziness. At points they dissolve into Dadaist sound poetry that threatens to turn into student improv comedy and then back again – before some more heartfelt spoken word pieces and genuinely moving music. It’s a bit BBC2 1980 arts strand / anarchist theatre workshop – and I mean that as a compliment and – what could otherwise be a rather twee band name makes perfect sense. Hedgehog – of course. There are kids in Manchester making absurdist, freaky art music – hurrah!

    Quade have a new record ‘The Foel Tower’ named after an isolated spot in mid-Wales where they made the record. It’s a more hushed, intense follow-up that dials down the rhythm and bass but is very much a cohesive statement and rather special. The stage is dimly lit and dry ice is pumping out every so often so, even though I’m stood close to the stage, it’s still oddly disorientating and perhaps is a good representation of the haunting landscape that informed the record.

    I can see the musicians through the gloom and they alternate between guitars and occasional violins – and there’s a mixing desk on stage so they can add effects and dub things up a bit as well as play in the cassette tapes with some of the samples that underpin the songs. It’s that mix of very organic, occasionally acoustic instrumentation and subtle ambient undertow & occasionally dubby bass excursions that are the secret of Quade.

    Musically the closest I can compare them to is post-rock titans like late period Talk Talk, Labradford and perhaps most of all, the legendary and long-lost Bark Psychosis. Like the latter, they have a knack for songs that have a languid, almost jazzy rhythmic feel but are somehow violently exhilarating at the same time. They can also get loud.

    At the heart of the set is ‘Nannerth Ganol’ which is a strobe-light driven slow burn of gliding drones and heavenly violin underpinned by what sounds like an analogue synth pulse – and whisks us all into the world of the Foel Tower. It’s a very immersive performance and completely gripping from start to finish. Bleak, windswept alienation never sounded so appealing.