DundeeDUNDEE LIVE - BANDS TO WATCH!!
REP THEATRE, Dundee 12-04: ALTRES
Dundee's finest synth music outfit come out of hiding for a rare invitation concert as part of the series of contemporrary and avant-garde concert performances under the annual "Kill Your Timid Notion" banner, Since they'd not had a chance to rehearse for what was to be just a half-hour, and actually I think, intentionally improvised, performance, the band, this time as a trio of two synth set-ups and electric guitar, simply set up downstairs in what was essentially the bar, and started the set, having joked earlier with me about whether or not we should have some kind of cuckoo clock sounding off to signal when the half hour was up!!! The set started with the band essentially feeling their way around each others musical thoughts as not-quite connected electronic bursts allied with scratchy rhythms and brief sizzling burst of guitar squall, made you seriously wonder into what musical black hole this band, normally a consummate mix of melody and rhythm, but lived dangerously, were heading. But then, seemingly out of nowhere, a quite beefy sequencer rhythm heralds the band clicking into gear as the synth players achieve lift-off and gel - the result this magical sound of strings, soaring melody lines and that massive rhythm full of bass and resonance. Alongside, Brian's guitar begins to burn, a srearing heat emanating from the chords that just erupt out of the speakers qas the icing is put on an already substantial musical cake. From here the band largely maintained this groove as the spell changed with the improvisation, all the time your attention absolutely transfixed on the expansive electronic soundpools and red-hot layers that are being created by a trio whose telepathy managed to kick in just before the black hole won. All in all, an unusual, for them, but, in the end, more than musically satisfying set.
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