Midlake @ The Sugarmill January 25th 2010

Review and Photograph by Simon Bamford

Midlake are in Hanley tonight to promote their new album “The Courage of Others”. The ‘Mill is pretty much full, it's a good turn out. There’s a mix of ages but the balance leans to a more mature audience. I am unfamiliar with most of their material, but sometimes, in my experience this is the best way to first hear a band live. The Texan band take to the stage with something missing, a band member, he appears seconds later and joins his buddies. Unfortunately as they progress through their set it feels to me as if there’s still something missing. We are treated to skillfull musicianship, rich harmonies, triple flute arrangements and even the odd bit of jovial banter.

There are influences in their sound ranging from Southern American rock and country, through Celtic to British folk. They are a good band no doubt, but for me they never quite hit the spot. I want to like the band more than I do tonight, it just seems to lack a certain sparkle. They peaked with the instantly recognisable number Roscoe and finished by not leaving the stage to do their encore. They simply explained their intention. The problem was for me that their seemed to be nothing memorable in between these points of reference; perhaps I'm the only person to feel, this or at least in a minority. I certainly enjoyed the gig but the band seemed tired, possibly from touring. Maybe I'm missing the point and that’s what Midlake's music’s all about.

All that said, it was a robust performance and enjoyable enough. Early in the set I ventured to the front to get a photo. There was a large semi-circle of free floor space in front of Singer Tim Smith. Are the band so unapprochable? I ask myself. Tonight I always felt there was a certain unbridgable gap.

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Midlake

Giro Junkie @ The Old Brown Jug 20th January 2010

Review by Charlotte Lunt

Photo by Leo Mazzocchio

Having seen Chris Moralee and his band in several guises over the last year, it appears that they have settled on being a 3 piece. With the less conventional line up of semi acoustic and electric guitar and djembe they appear to have found the balance of sound and structure.

Opening with his 2009 single Chris and Band (Kara and Kris) combined close harmonies with fragile emotional lyrics, setting the scene for a emotive set. Building on this they delivered a thought through cover of Springsteen’s “I’m on Fire” which they had thoroughly made their own.

By layering simple structure and building in intensity, the group arrive at a more organically complex sound, and through the sharing of lead vocals give an auditory as well visual symmetry. Closing with an ironically self described “depressive number” which again showcased the harmonies and propensity of the band to emphasise central themes through repetition of lyrics and increasing volume, they finally lost themselves in the trance like nature of their songs, before waiting for the songs to reach the end of its journey.

One of the difficulties of playing in pub venues is that the audience can have the tendency to regard the performers as a jukebox , however Chris demanded attention which was revealed by the audiences gathering cross legged on the floor in front of the stage.

Giro Junkie stepped up to the stage in his first role as headline, which for my money has been a long time coming. Kicking off with his eponymous track, recounting the tale of a man on the dole dealing with the monotony of his life, Rich has developed this song over time to include a number of jazz breaks in it which take the song to a a darker place, almost as if giving us a subliminal insight into the mind of the subject.

Giving a very physical performance, Rich used every inch of the stage embodying the frustration he appears to feel with the characters in his songs. Continuing to juxtapose some traditional folk hybrid with heavily jazz influenced breaks he stormed through two more tracks, revealing the infrastructure of the songs and showing how the tracks have developed over time. In “Feeling not fearing” a decidedly grungier sounding track, Rich has tried to encapsulate the process and frustration of trying to write a song that never reached fruition.

With a generous amount of banter with the audience who had come out in force to support him, Giro Junkie’s performance is more than a mixture of music and story-telling, his take on the ‘man in the street’ provides social commentary that is particularly pertinent to this venue. Definitely an act to look out for.

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Giro Junkie

Chris Morallee

V.B.S - For you and there I’ll be there

Review by Stephen Harvey

Image courtesy of VBS

The latest offering from Chris Dulson or VBS as he is now known is a little bit different from his previous offerings to the world of dance music. This is a far more energetic and uplifting style of trance to what we are hearing locally and one I am sure his growing fan base locally will enjoy. A very heavy bass-line and swirling synths build and excite throughout the opening few minutes, and there is the inevitable break in the middle with a dreamy vocal accapella that we come to expect in this style.

To be honest vocal trance is not really my particular favourite genre. The last such offering I purchased was DJ ‘Tiesto – Just be’ A fine album, but one that doesn’t really make me an expert on this very diverse and popular style of dance music. This release though, I feel is a good attempt at capturing this extremely lucrative market that is dance music, and I think it may well have a good shot if given the bigger audience it so rightly deserves. Sadly the ability to create such tunes is no guarantee of success in a very competitive market these days, and the contacts in the mainstream world of radio airplay and big name DJ’s playing your tracks is a far more of a useful tool nowadays.

That said this track would not sound out of place on one of the hundreds of compilation albums that will be for sale this Christmas in HMV, which to me speaks volumes for it.

My only real negative is that maybe the quality of the female vocalist, sometimes doesn’t reflect the quality of the production skills used by VBS, This may be just my ear though, and I would advise you all to check it out yourself.

The track and his new E.P are available on iTunes for digital download

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VBS

Bleached WaiL / The Boothen / Tequila lips @ The Underground 21st November 2009

Review by Liam Kelly

Photo by Chris Bostock

Tonight The Underground played host to one of it’s most eagerly anticipated shows of 2009, Tequila Lips Album launch. Excitement was clear from the reasonably sized crowd by the time first act, Bleached Wail took the stage. These lads from Alsager got straight into things with the pulse racing beats of ‘Rumours’ and then into the boisterous rendition of ‘He’ll do anything’. The yelping vocals of frontman Gus shone throughout a set filled with energy and passion. So much so that they somehow managed to knock over two mics and destroy an amp. A band who can’t be put into one specific genre, showed a small snippet of everything including indie, pop, ska and punk. Bassist Floody danced around the stage as if it were on fire and kept the crowd more than entertained throughout. Throw this in with Nicks frantic drumming and it’s in tracks such as ‘Zoo Town’ and ‘Hot on his heels’ that this band shows their promise.

Following this superb first act were newishly formed band, The Boothen. Formally known as The Rough Charm, these four lads are the perfect example of the sex, drugs and rock & roll cliché. The Boothen arrived tonight with their usual large following that were sent into a frenzy by the engaging choruses of songs such as ‘Pure’ and ‘Calling’. As their performance goes on, with each song, each infectious charge of head - bobbing riffage, the band increase in confidence. From front man Will's swagger, guitarist Liam's energy fuelled guitaring, bassist Danny's cheeky laid back attitude to Ashley's symbol crashing drumming, it's hard not to admire the boys for their style and charisma. Will demands respect from his audience and certainly earns it with crowd favourite ‘Suburban Suicide’. It's a testimony to Will's song writing ability that large sections of the crowd were singing along to every word of his lyrics. The clear influences of the late eighties-mid nineties era of bands such as Oasis, and The Libertines is evident throughout in The Boothen’s set. Ending with an old but classic track and a stage invasion from their loyal fans indicating the kind of popularity The Boothen are experiencing at the moment.

Next it was the moment this near sell out crowd had waited for, the appearance of Tequila Lips. To say the lads were excited was an understatement considering they all ran onto stage. Storming into their set with the anthemic ‘No Way Back’ got the crowd going, much to the delight of frontman Gary Clay who urged them to get involved throughout the set. It has to be said, Gary is easily one of the most talented frontmen in Stoke right now. The thriving energy of guitarists Tom and Dave, mixed with Azza’s tight bass playing and Sam’s ferocious drumming give the band the perfect stepping stone to create a sound powerful enough to earn comparisons to influences such as The Verve and Kasabian. A band not only big with and sound and musical quality, but with the good looks, style and charm that screams out coolness. ‘Joe Teague’ was screamed back to Gary by the loyal following of the band and sent the crowd into further chaos prompting scenes of flung pints, frugging mosh pits and crowd surfers. ‘The Rain’ and one of the bands newest tracks went down well with the crowd and the mayhem continued. These boys certainly no how to put on a show! It was then time for the title track of the album, ‘Crystal ball’. After having a sneaky preview of the track beforehand it’s clear to see why it’s so popular with its neat and tidy guitar riffs to its engaging chorus and hooky melodic vocals. It’s the kind of single that rattles around your brain for days and was impossible to leave without humming the melody to yourself. Finishing the night with crowd favourite ‘Another Face in the Crowd’, the band finished on a high and in particular Tom, whose pitch perfect voice carried the first verse of the song. A successful year for the lads from Tequila Lips and was topped off with one of the most spectacular performances I’ve witnessed in a long time from a band who are already making their mark on the local music scene and are expecting to go on to big things.