The Metro, Chicago 11 November 1998 There I was, freezing my proverbials off outside the Metro club here in da windy city. My cigarette was burning ridiculously quickly as the icy north breezes fanned it and made me all annoyed… but say la vie (as the French c’est). I was waiting in line to see a line up which included – in order of appearance – Twilight Circus […]
Reviews by Freq
2880 posts
Label: Domino Format: CD,LP There’s been a slow evolution of the Third Eye Foundation sound going on for quite a while, as the feedback sculptures and harsh breakbeats of previous releases give way to a more accomplished digital sound. No less committed to the darker, eerie drones and clattery loops than before, You Guys Kill Me retains the edgy feel of releases like the unsettling Ghost album, but […]
Po Na Na’s, London 2nd November 1998 Po Na Na’s is a bit of a new venue in London, emerging from underneath a pub on the increasingly busy (musically as well as with traffic) Highbury Corner, and decorated in a faux-Moroccan style which actually suits the sounds emerging from The Third Eye Foundation‘s DAT player and mixer quite nicely. Matt Elliot tweaks levels and twiddles knobs to suit […]
Interference Union Chapel, London 30th October 1998 The cold snap is just hitting London in time for this event, set in the chilly North London church (OK, technically it’s a chapel, but it looks and feels more like a Gothic construction, all pointed arches and uncomfortable pews) which has played host to some of the best gigs of recent years. Fortunately the management have installed electric bar heaters […]
A Splendid Chaos 28th October 1998 Faust have been a legendarily chaotic group since their origins as a kind of experiment in the creation of an anti-rock band in the early Seventies. Nearly thirty years on they remain as surprising and unpredictable as ever, live or on record, as they have throughout their erratic career, as Antron S. Meister witnessed at their London gig at The Garage on […]
Label: 13th Moon Format: 12″ Taking one of the best tracks from Nocturnal Emissions and sticking it through the electronic mangle, Mr. & Mrs. Fiend embark on a high-octane blast through all the electro, techno, breakbeat and goddam’ rock machinations possible at once, topped off by Nik’s unchanged vocal style – demented. The amphetamine groove ASF have been on for most of their career seems somehow to be […]
Label: Duophonic Ultra-High Frequency Disks Format: Limited 2CD,2CD Stereolab have been known for their prolific releases on limited-run seven-inches, compilations and sundry other media – fortunately, they’ve also been very good at collecting their ephemera into neat bundles for those unable to find the original editions. Aluminum Tunes is Switched On Stereolab Volume 3, though quite why the extra name was needed isn’t clear. The two CD package […]
Label: Domino Format: CDS,12″ Exhibiting a kind of Bristolian faux-gangsterism with sampler firmly in cheek, Matt Elliott is definitely getting more proficient with the drum & bass these days. Still spooky and atmospheric, the use of choral samples on the title track recalls the early unsettling soundscapes of Current 93 but with a beat – which is a pretty damn good idea too. Religious art is probably best […]
The Dublin Castle, London 16th October 1998 +Penthouse; Stoke Newington, London 17th October 1998 There can be few experiences as strange or as wonderful as when Bobby Conn and band show up in town in a flurry of wigs, imposture and post-Glam Rock attitude. Truly an eventful, landmark kind of proceeding, where the atmosphere rocks by itself, and the band play on as if they were the only […]
Kosmische @ The Garage, London 12 September 1998 A legend or two popped into The Garage, held an audience captive for a couple of hours, and it was just as might be expected – half a trip back in time, and half a slice of something timeless. Damo Suzuki nearly three decades on still has the stage presence of the Can days (at least that evident in Peter […]
Label: Warp Format: CDS, 12″ Plone have a nice ear for the uses of old technology, turning in three deceptively simple songs (which happens also to neatly provide the title for track two) , equal parts Pram and retro elevator music. “Plock” is a shimmery analogue bossanova featuring that most marvellous of processors, the Vocoder, while the aforementioned “Simple Song” recalls the naivete of early electronic music with […]
Label: Mute Format: CDS, 12″ How to make a remix EP, 1998-style: take a track from your last album (Control Data, in this case). Process in a variety of styles by Ultraviolence (Gabba, twice), No-U Turn (Drum & Bass) and, last but not least (apart from the original mix, naturally), current king of the version and the rewind, Alec Empire (er… JungleGabbaTechnoHipHop). Guaranteed to break the eardrums at […]
The Festival of Central European Culture Queen Elizabeth Hall,The South Bank Centre, London 10th July 1998 Across between political rally, religious service and Thrash Metal gig, tonight’s appearance in the centre of High Art’s temple of culture simultaneously enthralls and overpowers with meta-kitsch imagery and extreme volume. From the mechanistic coupling of video projections with the thunderous music, via the part-Rock, part- militaristic poses thrown by the band, […]
Irregular The Africa Centre, London 2nd July 1998 Having sat throught he absence of promised DJ Holger Hiller – and hence a repeated digi-dub tape instead – the appearance onstage of two-thirds of Pan Sonic presaged the arrival of Alan Vega. Strutting with his customary swagger, and dressed like a heavy-metal Guardian Angel in shades, Vega launched into his set while his collaborators manipulated the sliders, twiddled the […]
Label: Soleilmoon Format: CD When not making up a sizeable chunk of the musical bedrock of The Legendary Pink Dots, and surprisingly unprolific in his solo work by the standards of that group, Phil Knight has been known to settle down to produce some stunningly hypnotic recordings in his time. Following on from the hypnagogic Dreamcell of the early Nineties, Silvermandalas opens with an untitled track which shows a fascination for the watery sound of an electric […]
Label: Mute Format: CD There’s no doubting Diamanda Galás’s intensity, integrity or innovation; more than anyone else, she not only bridged the underground-overground divide while such tactics were still relevant, but has created some truly spell-binding works of lasting impact on the subject of AIDS in Plague Mass. Malediction and Prayer is a record of her global performances in 1996-7, showcasing her dynamic range to full effect through […]
Kosmische/The Sausage Machine The Vibe Bar, London 11 June 1998 I was foned on Wednesday night by Iain, a friend who I hadn’t heard from for a little while. He asked if I liked Fridge. I asked whether he meant my fridge or whether I was merely well disposed towards refrigerators in general. He told me that they were playing Thursday night in Brick Lane and thought I […]
Label: Truckstop/Atavistic Format: CD, LP Coming across like Jesus Christ Superstar on (more) acid, Chicago’s favourite Judeo-Christian Edutainer Bobby Conn is out to save your soul and wallet from resisting temptation. Aided in his Millenialist assault on reason by sundry members of (among others) Brise-Glase, Flying Luttenbachers, Rome and the production efforts of Jim O’Rourke, Conn conjours a straight-faced vision of an alternate universe where Seventies meet Nineties. […]