Damo Suzuki, Kawabata Makoto and Saturation Point (minus Thoughtforms)











Kawabata certainly demonstrated his mad guitar philosophy, tearing at the lock grooved concoctions with amazing zeal – I danced to within an inch of my life, burning up on the energies, Mr O to my side, bounced around to the tribal impetus while I convulsed to Makoto’s knife edges… Mr Suzuki sucked us into his vocal mantra… God knows what he was saying… caught all sorts of strange snippets and mis-hearings, melting along that heavy reverb … horizon of eyes…smiles…miles of aisles…tango fries… ah fuck it, this man was incredible! Weaving his voice over epic distances, all that gibber, fusing everything together, that mouth of his always infused, dragging his breath back deep inside, forcing his features around the mic, dripping in fountains of sweat…He was giving his all. The other musicians found wholesome grooves and stuck with them, creating massive swirling wonders, which seemed to last for ages, odd shapes sparking arclite fantasies.









The first half consisted of Gonga’s drummer, an fx-laden bassist and the Japanese duo… The bassist treated us to his percussive styled warpages (a mass of units flickering at his feet)… whilst Kawabata was ceremonially knifing , violin bowing or just plain hand attacking his guitar in wahhhh shimmered angles, I looked at Mr O – he had a smile you could fit most of America into…



For the second half the stage bustled with bodies, some belonging to Saturation Point, others were unfamiliar… this half was more effects driven and psychotropic mist, droney slivers bending light… but it wasn’t long before the two drummers conspired to bring the whole thing back into a satisfying Kraut-fuelled churning, full of laddered nylon and flashes of pure guitar insanity…



Damo radiated love, thanking the audience and sending out kisses to his fellow performers… I think he must have shaken everybody’s hand that night as we all made our way out into the frosty sparkle… What a legend!… A fitting epitaph to another excellent year of live music.

Comments

Anonymous said…
hey, nice review. but one correction to make - i don't play in gonga!

tom elgie (the real gonga drummer) was there that night, in the audience, but we are not the same guy!
Cloudboy said…
apologies for the mix up...
Anonymous said…
all you drummers look the same.

wish I could have been there!

charlie x
Anonymous said…
I'm jealous... AMT played NL a few weeks ago but on the other side of the country...

Maybe I should become a dry land sailor, with a girl in every city... That should solve my problems (ahum ughe ughe...)
Cloudboy said…
charlie, thoughtforms would have been a excellent rapier to makoto's sonic carvings...a real blast...

...can't believe the teenage jesus have reformed... hope yr caught them at ATP and more importantly they didn't suck big time...

ah, baarsini... it was interesting to see KM without the whole of AMT in tow, think his gtr can get a bit lost when they freek out...

...often imagined cloning myself to catch all musical happenings, but would probably end up, more of a confused monkey than i am now...
stolle said…
cool! I played with Damo last week, we're gonna put that stuff up at our site www.emptyblaukraut.blogspot.com
,where you can also find the other gigs we did with him in the past, as well as our own stuff.

luv, stollllllle
Charlie said…
Cloudy, Teenage Jesus were great!

Also, I now have a copy of Jame's and Joe's set from this night. It's great.
Cloudboy said…
yeaaaah... just seen a clip on u-tubus...i'm so glad they still can throw it out there...how come no one ever starts up a 'teenage jesus' tribute band...

Orphans is such a juicy collapse of a song - always had a soft spot for Lydia,especially round the time Clint Ruin was in tow...oh you could taste that chemistry stinkfist(meltdown) was just fantasticcc - a real dirty pearl...

... i'll have to grab a listen to that set recording when i next meet you and rewind to those Suzuki-koto vibes...