YĪN YĪN & LONG SWORDS
NAC gets its dancing shoes on for an evening of Dutch psychedelia.
Norwich Arts Centre
Sometimes it is near impossible to find the words to adequately describe a gig. Hailing from Maastricht, Netherlands, YīN YīN’s show tonight falls into that category. I mean, how is it possible to convey the barking mad genius of a band that plays what I can only call psychedelic-city pop-funk-kosmische-soul-japrock-disco-spaghetti western-sōkyoku-rock?
Although their roots and influences are very different, there are similarities between Yīn Yīn’s largely instrumental music and that played Los Bitchos, particularly in the Erik “the Alan Partridge of guitar players” Bandt’s tone and his interplay with Remy “the Alan Partridge of bass players” Scheren. Founder and de facto leader Kees “if Alan Partridge played drums” Berkers plays some of the most complicated patterns I have seen outside of jazz and prog but never in a way that distracts from the songs. Robbert “the Alan Partridge of synthesisers” Verwijlen keys sound mixes Casiotone with Hammond and more.
Although NAC is not sold out – well, it is a Thursday in August after all – there is a decent and enthusiastic crowd. The dynamic show, with some particularly slinky moves from Scheren induces energetic, non-stop dancing and vigorous whooping from the audience.
What they did wasn’t all to my tastes - I could have done without the (admittedly well received) drum solo – and predominantly instrumental shows can get samey (and I say that as a massive fan of Mogwai), Yīn Yīn’s set never dragged.
A quick word about opener LONG SWORDS. I’m not one for DJ sets. Give me a live band any day. But any deejay outfit that describes the stuff they play as “space disco, kosmische, Italo, acid rock, glam, progressive psych, drums, other” is going to pique my interest. What Long Swords deliver tonight doesn’t make me dance but it is interesting and eclectic. It gets my foot tapping and my head nodding and a few people without my inhibitions do get dancing.
Oh, and the Alan Partridge references are how Berkers introduced his "motherfucking" band. Is Partridge big in the Netherlands?
