Anta, Thought Forms and Hreda

@ The Cube Bristol - Friday 3rd Sept

The sky was an iridescent candyfloss pink, full of feathery genies... as the sun slipped down the sky... Velvet Chrome were playing on the stereo... a free download via the Hobo Cubes... the sirens on it made me a bit jittery... good lo fidelity sounds though, quite varied too... gotta track more down...

Felt great to be at the Cube again, my favourite Bristol venue, all things considered - along with Joey and Bambi's Basement... haven't been here since June when I caught that excellent Singing Knives shindig... Nosing through the flyers is always a pleasure, not too many missed opportunities... this appealed, anything Sudden infant related has a habit of doing that...



then the flip revealed this...



and I'm there thinking...KOOL... but it's in London... and I can feel a flood of personal negatives... but Hijokaidan, Smegma... man... we'll see... life's just too expensive these days!



There was quite a crowd that night... First up were Anta ... who I instantly loved... pure Nouveau Prog... with a real sense of adventure... mixing it up with a certain Hydrahead sensibility... no doom infatuations to bring it down...



guitars coming across keyboardic, skidding on crumpled effects angles... organ chewing out 'Doorsy' drones, buried in the heavy buzztonic... The riffs, monolithic, not primitive but eking the celestial... cloaked in plush velvetelectrics, ...centipedial ingredients walking through your mind in pleasing patterns, splutters ...



drums thumping out staggered blasts, the bass sliding across the edges, leaping the occasional thunder strike... both guiding and following... everything jigsawing together perfectly, the screen based abstractions floating along with it all... the sonics full of luminal shadows without clinging too preciously to historical testament... fantastic stuff...

If any band could follow them, it would be Thought forms, they simmered, slowly building up steam, Deej, cross legged, skimming shiny shrapnel through the speakers...





Guy giving out a few subtle tremors... Charlie, snake charming a rousing beast... Eastern stars breaking across falling rain... Klimt's birch forest, a carpet of lifting leaves... the sway potent and heady... teetering off in guitar/drums/guitar fist-e-cuffs...











I was loving that mutated highland chiming and the duetting... That stunning version of 'We would be so happy if...' was a super polished juggernaut, reluctant to be extinguished... full of tasty 'calm before the storm' trajectories and sheering energies... with everything finally ending on an explosive, corrosively jubilant high...



The last band Hreda were massively 'treble' soaked ,two guitar and drum trio... don't know whether I liked them, though Joe was loving every moment... their chords were solid and everything flowed nicely round each other with amazing dexterity and a fair amount of originality, even worked well to the Akira bike action on screen... but I guess it wasn't my kinda thing or I just wasn't in the mood, maybe too clean for my liking...although that track towards the end was beginning to really hook me in good and proper...







On the way back the moon was a huge scimitar of red, just laying there on the horizon, as the Swans pounded an incessant riff around the car... the Dead Kennedy's leaving us a cakey 2am surprise when we got through the door...