Another of MusicInOxford’s very own musical showcases, those dubious
masterminds at MiO HQ brought together a mixture of local and
out-of-town talent at that most venerable of Oxford venues, the
Wheatsheaf. Unfortunately, being Friday the 13th and all (and Stagecoach
bus company being what they are) not everything went to plan, and as
such I arrived too late to see any of Space Heroes of the People’s set,
although I was impressed by the turnout at the Wheatsheaf for what was
such an eclectic line-up. People seemed to enjoy SHOTP’s set as a whole,
one person summing it up as (and I’m paraphrasing) “space-age dance
music with lots of weird samples.” Sounds like a pretty good start to
the evening to me.
Next up were Canterbury’s Delta Sleep, who had already caused some
controversy by showing up quite late which in turn made the night run a
bit over. Anyway, they played what could lazily be described as math
rock – that is, their music was characterised by melodic, mellow guitar
leads, tricky, overly-complicated drums, sudden shifts in time
signatures, and a quiet-loud-quiet dynamic. In all honesty, their set
didn’t really do much for me – the first song stirred my interest well
into the second, but from there on I more than got the picture, and what
I heard started to sound more like an exhibition of musical
one-upmanship than music with heart and soul. A harsh summary, perhaps,
but these guys clearly have the enthusiasm and chops to disregard
anything this cantankerous chump has to say about song structure and
cohesion of ideas. If you’ve got it, flaunt it, I suppose.
Von Braun proved that even on what drummer Gary Atkinson called an
“off-night” the sheer twitchy energy of their live performances and the
brilliance of their songs would show up many bands in town on what they
would call a good night. Renditions of ‘Opener’, ‘Mustard Picasso Man’
and ‘Cat Dog’ demonstrate the band’s mysterious, twisted song-writing
style, combining elements of Radiohead, Pixies, Nirvana, and even
Elliott Smith, without ever sounding overly derivative or indebted to
any of their influences. What can I say? They were certainly the
highlight of the evening and definitely a band to check out at the Punt
if you’ve not yet discovered their unique racket.
Perhaps Grudle Bay were victims of unfortunate placement on tonight’s
bill, but after all that has preceded, their set seemed a bit
underwhelming. Having really enjoyed some of their recorded material as
Grudle Bay Riots (‘Pia’ was the standout track on recent local
electronic compilation We Do Not Have a Dinosaur), it’s not
hard to see why the “Riots” has been dropped from their name, based on
tonight’s performance. I was expecting an intoxicating combination of
Air, Radiohead and Warpaint, but what I got was more like a disco
version of ‘Sex on Fire’ for half an hour. I’ll look forward to hearing
more where ‘Pia’ and ‘Hon’ came from.
[Originally published by Music In Oxford, 19/4/2012]
http://www.musicinoxford.co.uk/2012/04/19/grudle-bay-von-braun-delta-sleep-space-heroes-of-the-people-the-wheatsheaf-oxford-13042012/
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