Spectro presents Independent Venue Week // NAC - 28.1.14
Norwich Arts Centre reigns supreme as one of the best independent venues in the UK.
It's a cold and wet Tuesday night in January but there's a good turn out for tonight, one of the several nights being put on nationwide for Independent Venues Week in the UK, for celebrating and supporting our local music venues. We get 4 local acts playing tonight for only a fiver; a massive bargain. First up is UNIX, a youthful chap who plays upbeat scuzzy house music on his laptop, accompanied by marvellous staticky visuals from local musician Bill Vine. We definitely recognise some of the Nintendo noises he hits, and there are some great 80s style breaks. Perhaps he should have played later though as his energy is a little much for the crowd who are just getting started.
Next up is The Boy With Two Heads (or TBWTH), local multi-instrumentalist Jamie Laurance, accompanied for some of the time by Amrita Brown, who lays down the laptop beats to accompany Jamie's live drumming and guitar playing. They pick their way through their minimal triphop music, with it sounding like it's been improvised but at the same time, carefully planned. It's bleak but warm, sexy but sad; the ideal soundtrack for a black and white road movie. If you like the soundtrack to The Returned, you'll like this a lot; it's quietly Mogwai. Jamie goes solo on his laptop for the last part with a set that's more like loose hip hop with more complex beats. They really are marvellous, almost too good for Norwich, and I expect them to be supporting Thom Yorke some time very soon.
Our third band of the evening Mammal Hands, are the most interesting-to-watch band, as they are totally live and playing actual jazz music with real instruments. Reminiscent of Portico Quartet and EST, there is a keyboardist, a saxophonist and a drummer, all very competant and playing some really difficult pieces, never appearing to mess up or lose their way. Again, really professional and destined for great things... definitely N&N Festival material for starters.
Finally, we have The Soft; one member from Suffolk, one from London, one with a crazy afro, one without, both with laptops. They look uber-chic and sound the same - very clear and clean sounds, with occasional The XX style singing from the one who looks like he should be in Echo and the Bunnymen. They start off pretty jolly and happy, but after a while get rather darker, sparse and experimental in style; intense. It almost seems that they are still slightly searching for their own style; I can see and hear all their influences but didn't really find anything original in their performance. Their visuals were good and individual. Overall, it was a really great school-night evening, with a big variety of acts all coming under the umbrella of 'electronic music'. Well done as always NAC.
Lizz Page
