Chew Lips - Sneaky Petes Edinburgh 27 Jan 2010

A version of this review is also published in The Journal.

The show opened with Leith based outfit My Tiny Robots, appropriate to the electro-disco genre of the other bands in name alone. The band gave a rather awkward and self-conscious performance, switching between instruments at every opportunity: including guitars, bass, synth, drums, trumpet, melodica, maracas and ukulele. Unfortunately they seemed to think a variety in instrumentation could make up for their lack of performance skills. Only their lead singer had the charm and charisma to warrant the audience’s attention.

Conversely, every member of Glasgow four-piece Boycotts was a well oiled indie-disco machine. The female vocals had the toughness of alternative rock, without being angry or angsty, and were backed by very snappy high-hat beats on the drums, overdriven, fidgety guitar, and disco-funk rhythms on the bass. The songs are designed to get the heart pumping and the foot tapping, and succeeded.

By the time London based Chew Lips (picture by Edmund Fraser) came on stage, Edinburgh’s smallest venue was packed sardine-style. The band is made up of lead singer girl, Tigs, centre stage, flanked by her two musical lads: Will Sanderson and James Watkins. The drums and most of the bass is pre-programmed and sequenced. The boys play synthesisers most of the set, sounding very 8-bit and glitchy, but will sometimes pick up a guitar or bass to add some buzz. Tigs’s vocal parts are poppy like Little Boots or recent Kylie Minogue.

More than any other instrument, the use of drums can affect the on-stage energy of a band, and although programmed drums blend well with synthetic music, the atmosphere ultimately suffers without having someone banging the kit. Fortunately, that’s the only area where the band lacked energy. The singer skipped happily to cyber-bleeps, while the boys convulsed to the beat like they were receiving very well timed miniature electric shocks.

The stand-out song from the set was ‘Salt Air’, whose uplifting melody is a refreshing in contrast to the dance-punk claustrophobia of the rest of the set.

 Myke Hall

Orange Slice Records Interview

As an apology for getting too smashed to remember his last gig that I was supposed to be reviewing (and possibly drunkenly hitting on his girlfriend), edRock.net asks Dan some intimate questions about Orange Slice Records, running an events promotion company, and the music scene.

Myke Hall

Blackbody Vol II - The Lava Experiments

Blackbody Vol II is a collection of lackadaisical trip-hop for 5 am on a Sunday morning. As the titles implies, it is the second installment of a triptych of EPs by Glasgow three-piece The Lava Experiments. Indistinct, distant vocals can sometimes seem like the ballads of an exhausted world-weary traveler by a campfire, and other times the chanting of monks echoing from the dark ages. Indeed the music seems to inspire metaphor contrivation. The songs are usually formed with programmed drumbeats, Moog or Moog-like synthesizers, rich bass and sometimes gentle guitar.

The opening track, Piecing Memories Together, falls flat compared to its successors, over-repeating a guitar riff and a three note synth line that is so simple it’s almost childish. Unusual, then, that the band have chosen to follow up the release of Blackbody Vol II with an EP of remixes of this track. Perhaps the band saw that the song had the most potential to be improved upon.

Luckily, the following tracks, Sun Flies, River Shape and Ring to the Dark Place are a dramatic improvement with the hypnotic quality of well-crafted progressive trance. The drum beats are active but not obnoxious, and produced to sound unimposing. Album closer The Release even brings an element of rock and roll to the mix, with a distorted guitar riff and a muscley electric bassline.

Overall, Blackbody Vol II is good music to have in your collection to have for when the right mood strikes (even if it is at 5 am). Although you might have to skip to the second track.

Myke Hall