Niclas Kjellström Matseke

Folie à Deux (with Sarah)

Folie à Deux (with Sarah)

Folie à deux : (English pronunciation: /fɒˈli ə ˈduː/) French'
“a madness shared by two / a shared psychosis"
DJ / Music Obsessive / Fashion Designer / Accidental Hipster Cliché.....

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The Horrors at The Academy : In Review


The Horrors - The Academy 

With a thick and weighty stage presence that always brings to mind the movie ‘Control’, I walked into The Academy to an already-very-much-in-progress show by The Horrors. I, apparently, was 20 minutes late - having arrived at 9 - though through lack of much further publicity about the show apart from the initial sales push, I’m still not even sure if there was a support act* or what time the bands set actually started at. Not great to be fair. 

Regardless of such minor irritations, The Horrors stage show did not disappoint - in fact, it was fucking great. Though I do hope for insurances’ sake it came with a photo epilepsy warning - because the rather epic light show that accompanied would certainly have felled anyone with even the most minor malady. ‘Sea Within a Sea’ - one of my own favorites - was within the first few I caught - and had the crowd riled to a state of frenzy when the ever recognizable synth line kicked in halfway through the song. It was tight as fuck live - and could well have passed for the recorded album version - bar a nicely more evident live drum mix. Moving swiftly into ‘Still Life’ off their newest release ‘Skying’ - Faris Badwins’ idiosyncratic gesticulations were reminiscent of an old show band frontman - though granted, with much more hair and distressed leather. The band disappeared all too soon into the smog after this song - yes, I know I had just arrived). An eerily ominous, low synth sound resonated throughout the venue as the we-know-you’re-coming-back-for-an-encore purgatory went on for all of about 5 minutes before the band returned to placate the roaring crowds with two more songs. 

‘Changing The Rain’ was the penultimate song in the set - and its stodgily thick drum beat opening was deliciously thudding, and made what i can only describe as bone-crunch-noise samples that sat beside it, all the more gratifying. Each member of the band is equally captivating in their performances - detachedly nonchalant, but utterly involved in the (re)creation of each song - your eyes dart from musician to musician constantly, though Badwins’ mashing the mic up against the amps antics to create some fuck-off reverberated distortion was nothing short of classic rock god antics. The finale song was ‘Moving Further Away’ and its ridiculously perfect synth line start was twinned with actual maracas to create the shake noise you can hear on the album ( why the revelation of this instrument struck me as odd somehow i don’t know ). Lost in their own personal worlds of noise, the boys closed with this absolute belter. They’re SUCH a band - and their show was worth every moment of the six month wait from ticket purchase to actuality. And I have NO fucking patience.

(Caveat : My only minor foible with the show is down to preference - with bands who’s tunes are grimy and gritty as the Horrors - I almost prefer seeing them in the slightly more ineloquent settings of a festival tent - with all its beer-cup-strewn messiness and rolling eyed puntered mayhem. But maybe that’s just me)

* (Apparently there was a support act and their name was TOY - you can listen to them here)

Posted in the horrors the academy gig gig review review control sea within a sea still life changing the rain moving further away electro rock synth amps post punk
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Breton with support from Ghost Estates - The Academy 2


Breton. 

These boys. They’re not just a band you’re gonna like. They’re a band you’re gonna wanna be. They are cool as fuck. And the best bit is, I don’t think they even know it. That’s fucking awesome.  

Last nights show in The Academy 2 was Bretons’ first ever in Ireland, and as they said themselves, ‘chances are that probably everyone in Ireland that knows about us - is here’ - there was about 50 people. Maybe, 50 people. But the crowd that did turn up to the show seemed to be a bunch of entranced new converts to the band, and many of the skillfully eavesdropped conversations I heard out in the smoking zone (yes I am the Rainman) at the front of the Academy were regurgitations of any of the few bio’s of the band that could be found online. Not overly surprising, given that Breton have only been together for the guts of the year, though they have, to date, released three E.P.s and launched their album, ‘Others Peoples Problems’ earlier this week. When I say go out and buy it, I mean NOW - (here) - its fucking great.. 

A distillation of pretty much every conceivable musical genre there is, Bretons’ tunes are a constant surprise, mashing hip hop, electro, shoe gaze and full on math rock with lyrics - sung - and harmonized - in both english and french, thank you very much. Their show was one of ‘them’ - one you know you’ll be chatting about in a few years going ’ oh yeah, Breton, I fully caught them a few years ago, before they got really fucking huge’, with a smug sense of satisfaction. The set - which i reckon was almost an hour long - was a full on onslaught - rapping, singing, and some of the best employed Korgs and Ableton pads I’ve seen in a while (i love noises), combined with the unique, jaunty drumming stylings of Adam Angier. Amongst the opening tunes was a song called ‘Sharing Notes’, thats a cracker, featuring a violin sample betwixt with some hard core rapping - when i said these guys’ music was unpredictable, this is kinda what I meant. There’s constant surprises in the structure, in the tempo, in the point of reference the music brings to mind - I swear at one point during a tune called ‘Sandpaper’, my mind said, ‘that (Ableton) noise wouldn’t sound out of place on a Skillrex tune’ - though being honest, I don’t really know who Skillrex is - it was just super-dancey and thats who my mind landed on. See? Random. These guys must be Skillrexs’ musical antithesis. Their music is just so full. And they are so damn nonchalant onstage, passing over instruments and swapping roles without missing a beat. Check songs like ‘December’ or ‘Kensington System’ for examples of standouts on the night - or ‘15X’ for proof that the boys are indeed multilingual. The one thing i would say is though, it was at times clear the audience was not entirely sure when to burst into their pretty damn appreciative applause - some of the songs had a tendency to fade out with noisy ambience rather than snap to silence - no one too keen on being that person that accidentally starts clapping mid song - awkward. Finishing up on a called ‘Penultimate’, the lads went to walk off stage though when the crowd started begin for another’s rather humbly quipped ‘I dunno if we have another one - no one ever asks us’ (really??) - and so banged out a tune called ‘`The Well’ - that has a super high Korg line and a gritty and cacophonously noisy breakdown. It’s serious. You know you rate a band when you buy one of their limited run, self designed t-shirts, and are keeping the tag that denotes your number for posterity. (47 / 200 for the record). Keep your eyes on these boys.

Ghost Estates

Support on the night came in the form of Dublins’ own ‘Ghost Estates’ - who we are always big fans of. We’ve seen them on numerous occasions in the last few months - and they really are going from strength to strength. Their set was a quick fire rendition of their realesed-so-far material, including ‘Paris’, ‘Forever or Never’ and ‘October’ (who’s single launch we went along too, and you can read about here) as well as some less familiar tunes - one, in particular, who’s name i didn’t catch, but has a weirdly (awesome) electronic stutter and the beginning, snappy electronic drums laid over the actual drum line and a big, fat guitar line that hovers above the song.  It sounds awesome and makes me excited for the imminent album launch. (By way of mentioning, the lads are doing a ‘Fund-it’ to gather a bitter cash for the vinyl pressing of their album - which you can donate to here.) A great accompaniment to a great band. 

Posted in breton ghost estates gig the academy 2 indie rap korg ableton english review