Don't get out much!

Garner

News Café, Ixelles

12th March 2009

Tonight’s trip into the vaults of the Brussels rock scene is courtesy of Garner. Or to give them their full name in glorious Technicolor, The Garner Bought Drums Project. The News Café is not exactly heaving. The owner later apologised for having screwed up and having booked them on the same night as a major ULB party. But there’s still a hardcore of familiar faces, and the beer is cold and wet.

“This is a song about Garner. Garner is dead.” Announces Nico 3 songs into the set. Oh dear! Garner by all accounts seems to be a twisted soul, who failed to die successfully, and is tortured b y pathos and the inevitability of destiny. The tone is pretty much set from the start with “Behind the Curtain”, behind which Garner hides his ego, “Lost in Confusion” which is about… Garner being lost and confused. The lyrical content of the songs is most certainly helped by Nico’s vocal delivery – the diction, enunciation and stresses are immaculate, and while he retains a hint of a mid-Atlantic Franco-American accent, this only adds to the character of the vocals. And there’s plenty of character there – a very dry, brusque, almost spoken style and vocal gymnastics that reminded of Jimmy Page at times.

Bretton exile Nico Rambaud is the brains behind Garner. He writes all the songs, all the parts, from the vocals down to the drum patterns. That doesn’t take credit away from the other musicians by any means – Didier Fontaine has a hugely impressive musical CV. He delivers the complex breaks and rhythm changes with awesome skill and dynamism, and real sensitivity when needed. Laurent Stelleman is better known as guitarist for Monsoon, but he’s also a phenomenally good bass player with a graduate in Jazz and light music. Not that there’s anything “light” about tonight. It’s a mark of just what a talented musician Nico is that these guys want to play with him. This is more than what they do for a living – this is what they live to do.

Musically, we are treated to a sort of hard jazz & funk tinged rock, not that dissimilar from Steve Albini’s band Shellac. Influences are also betrayed by a Prince and a Hendrix cover, but rather appropriately, neither “The Cross” nor “Manic Depression” stray from the overall theme.

If you’re tempted to go and see Garner, and if you’re a musician in a rock band, I highly recommend that you do, as it’s a real masterclass in delivering a great live rock performance, start with the myspace site. Listen to the songs, watch the video, get an idea and a feel for Garner’s little world – you’ll get more out of the gig. Even if you’re not really into the music, they’re well worth seeing at least once.

This wouldn't be complete without a mention of Nico's detailed and precise guitar work, culminating towards the end of the set in a magnificent clean and quiet guitar solo where you could literally hear a pin drop.

I think for a future article, we might just try and coax Garner onto the couch for a psychoanalysis session.

Next gig I see is Saturday 21^st March 2009 at the Murmure, just behind Place Flagey. If I’m allowed out, I’ll be there.

www.myspace.com/gbdproject

Pixel Race & Alkalys

Soirée Cerises – Ixelles – 8^th March 2009

Can’t see the amps for the beards!

Alkalys:

Oops – Late as usual and Alkalys are already in full flow. They’re a 4-piece from Le Havre in France and are on a DIY 12-date tour of Northern France and the Benelux, supporting the release of their 2nd album, "Coeur Delys". First think that strikes me is the number of amps on stage – the Flute Enchantée has plenty of room, but for once, the stage looks rather crowded.

Weird! Not quite sure what to make of this forest of Post-Rock noise at first. There’s little communication with the audience. One bass player with his back turned to us, the other one concealed behind the guitarist, who while he is facing us, is clearly more interested in his shoeless feet and whiter-than-white socks.

Jimmy’s solid, hard, aggressive, almost metallic bass rages through most of the set, while drummer Spleet (who is a perfect likeness for Animal from the Muppets) leads the frenzy from the back. As the lone guitarist, Max is providing loops and texture, and looks almost out of place, as he’s the only one of the 4 not sporting a wild bush of hair and beard. Meanwhile, Ben, carefully hidden at the back has stuck a screwdriver in his bass and is grinding away at it with what looks like a home-made bow and a drumstick. At one stage, even Spleet left the drums, turned his back to us, and picked up a bass and a bow.

The music is experimental. It's about layers, journeys, emotions, challenging preconceptions. Like Stockhausen or Glass, you do not "just" listen to it like you listen to throw-away pop - you need to experience it, feel it, become one with it. You need to let yourself be swept away with the flow. Fighting it is futile. It doesn't matter who it soundlike or who's done this sort of thing before. If you have to ask yourself that, you'd be missing the point.

Alkalys is a band that pushes the limits. Not just of what you should be doing with the instruments, but also of what the audience ought to be experiencing. It took me quite a while to understand what was happening on stage, just to eventually realise that there was nothing to understand. Just relax, sink into the music, and reach an almost trance like state.

I’m on the first listen of the album as I write this. This is music for meditation. Alkalys are not there to entertain. They’re here to clean your soul.

http://www.myspace.com/alkalys

Pixel Race:

Off for a beer, and back into the theatre to see the amps have moved a bit to fit even more gear on stage. Same beard set-up - 3 long, 1 short, but that’s just about where comparisons stop.

I’ve heard good things about Pixel Race. I’d bumped into Eric a while back, we’ve known Jessica for a while, and I’ve had some very positive reports from the lads who’ve already seen them.

Most of the songs have some element of sequenced synths to them coming from a laptop in the corner, so the Nicolas the drummer is playing along to a click. Not that it lacks spontaneity. Eric’s solid rhythmic guitar seems to have its origins somewhere in the realms of metal, but he’s quite open to launching into a synth solo every now and again. Jessica’s discrete riffs intertwine with Olivier’s masterful bass.

The band have great fun on stage. This really comes across. The songs are bright, uplifting, fast paced and very well written and structured. As you’d expect from a band where the majority of the members spend most of their time making other people’s music sound good, the orchestration and attention to detail is immaculate.

Eric is clearly in charge of operations, and Kevin seems to be at a slight loss for what to talk to the audience about between the songs. They’re used to playing festivals, and I suspect they’re not quite used to really being as close to the audience as you get at La Flute Enchantée. That’s somewhat reflected in their set – fairly short and very high octane. I’d have liked to see something a bit slower that maybe allows Kevin to show off his soulful voice.

Kevin has a great voice and great technique. His vocal delivery is really excellent. It’s a shame the sound isn’t quite right – Eric’s guitar is a bit on the loud side, and Kevin’s not really up-front enough to really be able to understand what he’s singing about, particularly in the lower ranges. And it’s a shame that the backing vocals are not really audible. But then the Flute is not the easiest place to get a good sound balance, despite the bands credentials.

Again, festival-ish set, so they’ve not got anything else up their sleeves for an encore. Wait! Yes they do! An entirely acapella rendition of Blown Away.

This is fun. Easy catchy tunes, a polished delivery, fronted by a young singer with a solid voice and immaculate English. Closer to McFly than Metallica. I don’t think they’ve consciously tried to breach that gap between Pop and Rock, but that’s what they are succeeding at. Knowing the local Brussels scene, they’ll be the derision of quite a few critics because of it. But if they manage to keep going and expand on what they’ve got, there’s a good chance that my kids will want Kevin posters on the wall and a guitar like Jess’s.

http://www.myspace.com/pixelrace