SOAP & SKIN (London Scala, 11/04/12)

Oh, if only this had been at a more suitable venue than the Scala. Anja Plaschg is one of music’s most terrifyingly intense performers, her gothic industrial compositions punctuated with brutal piano hammering and screams of pure anguish, but even her dark drama loses something when it’s incessantly interrupted by the click of a malfunctioning smoke machine. Nonetheless, there were some truly spine-tingling moments, not least the apocalyptic “March Funebre” or the slow-building and stunningly atmospheric encore of “Pale Blue Eyes.”

(Photo: John Gleeson)

65DAYSOFSTATIC (London Garage, 10/04/12)

My first 65daysofstatic show in half a decade, and man, I’d forgotten how good a live band they are. Achieving a perfect balance between the math-rock instrumentals of old and the dancier material of recent years, there was hardly a moment to catch one’s breath as they unleashed one killer onslaught of grinding guitars and shimmering electronica after another. Plus, they finished their main set with the unbeatable double-whammy of Retreat Retreat->Radio Protector, which automatically made this the most sweatily enjoyable show of 2012 so far.

(Photo: Rachel Lipsitz)

SUFJAN STEVENS, BRYCE DESSNER AND NICO MUHLY (London Barbican, 09/04/12)
 

Three doyens of the independent music scene joined forces to perform a series of compositions inspired by the Solar System - with varying degrees of success. We were warned before the show started that this was a “work in progress” and it shows; “The Sun” sounded like an unfinished sketch rather than a meaningful part of proceedings, and a couple of other planets suffered from repetitive or aimless structures. That said, when “Planetarium” was good, it was very, very good, the baroque and ostentatious Jupiter and brassy cinematics of Mercury being particular highlights. Not a patch of Sufjan’s live shows last year, but an interesting and worthwhile experiment all the same.

(Photo: John Gleeson)

RETRIBUTION GOSPEL CHOIR (London Old Blue Last, 05/04/12)



Alan Sparhawk ditches the understated melancholy of Low for straight-out, balls-to-the-wall rock ‘n roll. Good fun, if a bit samey at times.

(Photo: S Shingler)

DARK DARK DARK (London Bush Hall, 04/04/12)



C'mon, there was a man who played a trumpet and accordion AT THE SAME TIME. If that isn’t totally awesome, I don’t know what is. Chamber-folk may have got a bit stale as a genre recently (strings and wind instruments don't always compensate for mediocre songwriting), but Dark Dark Dark's compelling instrumental and stylistic eclecticism makes them a joy to experience.

(Photo: Pimlicoco)