Brew Records are barely a year old. Two young men, a grant from The Scarman Trust, an impressive CD compilation of regional talent, a feature as Huw Stephen's Independent Label of The Week … and here we are. I CONCUR are their first band as a regular single-issuing, national-profile-courting proposition. There are origins in the very fancied NIKOLI, of course. But I CONCUR seem to have hit a level of recognition from day one. Their tunes have been figuring on BBC's Raw Talent in the northern region and a Maida Vale session for national broadcast is in the pipeline. UK gigs are booked for March and April.
So it’s not surprising that tonight's single launch gig at The Brudenell has a big crowd and a very high celebrity-to-regular punter ratio. The quality of the supporting bill is proportionately blinding.
"Lucky Jack" and "Build Around Me" (reviewed on W&H) are given full voice - second in and second to last out. Favourites "Demons and Slaves" and "Oblige" open and close. "Exits and Blockages" with its magnificent, spine-tingling coda follows "Lucky Jack". There are three songs that I haven’t heard before ("Grandeur", "Captors" and "Able Archer") It's wonderfully fresh and exciting - it’s as if the band is discovering the scale of what they have made and are still in awe of it.
Tim Hann stands centre stage, checked shirt and shaven head, wrestling one of two vintage Fender guitars. Toby Page is steady on bass, Chris Woolford is permanently anguished on second guitar and James Brunger sings like a bird on second vocals and huge drumming. There's a physical intensity that matches the music. Sometimes there's a collective holding-of-breath before an onslaught. And the onslaughts are a controlled violence with emotional consequences.
If you need some kind of sonic grid references, I CONCUR sound somewhere North West of EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY and several leagues North East of THE NATIONAL. Lyrically they have a special cast of their own. Elusive and allusive, they distil the emotional spirit from mythic stories and lost heroes. Like the music, they surge and roar with subtle shifts and they move great burdens. The performance tonight is bursting with freshness and the slight whiff of nervous excitement from the band just adds to the buzz.
Well and truly launched. A very splendid gig.
Leicester's HER NAME IS CALLA, anticipating their own national tour for Gizeh Records were the main support. Their line-up tonight adds Sophie Barnes of the ROSIE TAYLOR PROJECT on trumpet. She looks wonderful and sounds even better. The trumpet rings clear and smooth, a gleam of light in the unsettled world of CALLA. Thomas Corah, Michael Love, Tom Morris, Adam Weikert and David Dhonau are a determined band of emotionally promiscuous noiseniks. They harbour orchestral ambition and emotional intensity. Silver Mount Zion and God Speed! You Black Emperor are sonic forbears. A big anguished voice screams, with power and shockingly genuine feeling, "This is anger!!!", "This is Punishment!!".
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WINTERMUTE had preceded them. And we do know about WINTERMUTE. Fiercely distilled, busy, engaging. They play their taut, explosively bright post-emo stuff with megawatts of energy. I think I spot a new song in there, and they've clearly lost no momentum since their Leeds Festival gig on the Carling Stage last summer. "Ask A Stupid Question" is a suitably raucous closer. "Gambling Or Playing Cards" is the standout song, with its chiming chords and springy tempo.
The evening's first band were PATTERN THEORY. The sound quality is superb. Their Caballero/Tortoise inspired instrumentals are joyful, light, precise and wonderfully played. A beautiful girl in the audience dances throughout the set - with easy grace and full confidence in the bands perfect sense of rhythm. As with any of very best bands, the drummer (James Yates) is impeccable. Carl Carlson and Lukas Creswell-Rost duet on Guitars - duetting being the correct term in this rare and special case. The whole band make me feel very good, just by virtue of the fact that they watch and listen to each other while they play. Danny Laycock does the decent thing on bass, refusing to show off, but holding the harmonies together and giving Yates a nimble run for his money. They do say PATTERN THEORY are off to Berlin. I'll be watching out for their next recorded work.
www.iconcur.co.uk
www.hernameiscalla.co.uk
www.myspace.com/wintermuteband
www.last.fm/music/The+Pattern+Theory
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