this was a weird one for me.
having spun the flykkiller album, experiments in violent light, literally hundreds of times over the last 6 or so months, i was concerned as to just how the core of stephen hilton and his partner in sonic crime, pati yang, could create the dark claustrophobic electro atmospheres live.
this concern was compounded when i saw the photos of the expanded line up on display on the bands, institute, aka website.
surely the added presence of backing singer/guitars/bass/drums etc meant that the original idea of flykkiller being a selfish studio operation was going to become a cloudy mess of modern rock n roll clichés and extra unwanted analogue distortion.
thankfully these fears never came to fruition.
when the band came on the stage in front of a minimal crowd (and by that i am not referring to the brand of techno, but the reality of a poorly attended show on a school night), it became apparent that a rethink had taken place.
apart from the real live drummer, the music was created all by stephen via a hi-tek guitar/keyboard setup.
oh, and the odd strange artefact from patis special box of tricks, adding a slice of percussive drama from time to time.
they hit the hard hitting electronic groove immediately with the album opener, and the bands signature track, flykkiller.
the sound was perfectly clear and sharp, and genuinely a welcome surprise to yours truly.
“daddy where did you get that scratch” never sounded so ominous.
pure dirty machine noise, with pati playing the role of a distant cool gothic angel to maximum effect.
such role playing would be somewhat wearisome through an entire gig, but often the ice cool persona is forgotten, and pati lets loose joking and jostling verbally with the crowd.
as the gig progresses, it becomes clear that the combination of patis intimidating stage presence and jaw dropping vocals are a perfect match for the industrial-electro-techno beats, the vocals are never outweighed by the forceful noise, and indeed stand up well to the onslaught of processed beats and loops.
of course, if you’ve listened to their debut album, you’ll know that other than a handful of tracks, much of the album is quite obscure, and not really song based.
for the show, these tracks are wisely avoided, as the play list focuses quite heavily on new unreleased material that shows a definite tightening of song structures, yet maintaining within the music, the passion for technology and edgy sonics.
basically, the new songs rocked.
including a cover of dr johns classic, walking on gilded splinters, rumoured to be the bands next single after, shine out shine out, with the original gumbo funk being given a very intense nu-millennium makeover.
so over the course of 45 or so minutes we are treated to the bands various singles, and a chunk of new stuff, before they close with an almighty acid techno monster, possibly called existence, during which stephen appears to be on his knees praying to the gods of the midi controller.
it’s a spectacular closing track, with pati giving her all in fine screaming banshee style.
even in my sober state, my head is buzzin’ and reacting to a mass of imaginary strobe effects that would go perfectly such a full on techno-rave pounder.
but hey, budgets are not available for such excess.
yet.
after the show, i managed to catch up with stephen.
most of the chat was between him and me, but here’s some stuff i will share.
– yes, they have indeed revised the bands line up for the live show. there was concern that expanded line up diluted the focus (ie you have to watch pati and not the guitarist), and clouded the electronically based music.
– this was only the third time they have tried this cut back line up.
– live drums are still used as opposed to a machine, as ‘i like the feel of live drums’
– the second album is just about finished.
– the band are to be appearing at glastonbury.
catch’em before things go seriously mad.
more detail : here
bonus feature : get the excellent david holmes remix of early single, fear, free here
[nb. a few simple details are required – not a direct link to an mp3, but it’s very worthy of such trouble]