Madame Moustache, 26th September 2010
I bumped into Samy Birnbach a couply of months ago in a bar in Brussels, and had a very engaging conversation with him about the state of the music industry. He gave me a brief runthrough of his Minimal Compact days, how he got a bit disillusioned with it and got into DJing as DJ Morpheus, and how he’d had a few other musical projects all with their own merits and fraught with their own problems and egos. It struck me that he was a very genuine guy, and absolutely passionate about music, whether he was creating it, or getting people to dance to it.
He also told me that he’d recently bumped into a couple of guys who’d convinced / coerced him that they should get a band together and ‘resurrect’ some of his old stuff into a live format. I can’t quite remember a lot of detail, but the long and short of it was that they set up Morpheus Secrets (the title of an old Minimal Compaq track) to play a set consisting of songs that spanned Samy’s career.
And that’s what got me here tonight – Samy’s excitement and enthusiasm just talking about the project.
The venue, just off Place St Catherine, has a strange sort of burlesque / turn of the century sleaze feel to it. It’s well attended, organisation courtesy of the Fantastique Nights team, and as notable for the familiar faces who are there as for those who have not made it with it being a school night. And while nobody seems quite sure what to expect, it is certainly a respectable turnout.
The lineup is Samy on vocals, rhythm, lead and bass guitars, and a drummer (names escaped me). Immediately, they set the standard with a fast paced number that sounded just immaculate (good sound was to be a feature of the evening). Following on with old Minimal Compact favourite, Babylonian Tower, it’s clear that the band have really done a lot to make the songs their own and rearrange them to suit their own sound, and yet still remain faithful to the original.
Samy is the genuine article. They’re his lyrics, his songs, and the passion that I was expecting is there just as I thought it would be. What I wasn’t expecting was the sheer brilliance and versatility of the 2 guitarists. More than a hint of various post-punk elements, particularly Gang of Four, with a good dose of Chic on one side, and Robert Fripp to Metalica on the other. The detail work of getting so much out of those 2 guitars was a real treat for the ears. In fact, if you have to imagine a sound, just take whatever Samy has done in the past, and strip out the electronic or world music elements, and feed it through a very good post-punk rock band.
I can tell by looking around that most of the people here realise that they’re experiencing something pretty special. “This is our first gig” quips Samy, and he seems just as pleased as we are that he turned up. We also got treated to cheery old Minimal Compaq songalongs Statik Dancin and Autumn Wheels, a few Penelope’s numbers, and last, but by no means least, a stunning rendition of Next One Is Real.
No encore, but no encore is needed. We’ve just seen one of the most sensational gigs of the year. And the next one, well – Next One Is Real.
P.S. I did hear rumous of an album, and I hope that is real too.
Links:
Anxious not to disappoint, 
Despite being all acoustic, this is not folk. It reminded me more of the soft indie-pop of Belle and Sebastian, or R.E.M. around the “Out of Time” album. I liked what I heard enough to buy a copy of the mini-LP they had with them. They have managed to capture that raw live in-your-living-room sound just perfectly. It really is a very faithful recording of how they sound, and does not suffer at all from over-production. Though I would have liked to see the lyrics printed in the booklet.
Now, I don't really do Metal, but Boutik Rock is a showcase,
Something that comes across straight away is the
There’s a huge variety in the music they play. Yes, it’s all metal, but the variation in the keys, tempos, chord progressions is phenomenal. Despite the ‘scream’ style, there’s a lot of clarity and technique to the vocals - this is not belching into a microphone - this is seriously impressive. “This is the first time we’ve played this song live” they announce, and launch into a number that is so wonderfully complex in its structure and progression that it would be worthy of early Genesis. But it would have taken Genesis an extra 10 minutes to play that many notes. This is very, very good musicianship and composition work. We also were treated to a few bars of the lead guitarist’s stunningly good voice, which had more than just a hint of David Coverdale about it.
The Frogs of War bass player now lives in London and goes by the name of Hands Randal. He’s teemed up with ex-Blow Monkeys drummer Tony Phones and ex CNN / Tinstar frontman/guitarist Dave. They also all feature in 
I did the sound for these guys (read – lent them my keyboard amp as a PA) way back when they were The Protagonists for one of their very first gigs - at The West Riding in Huddersfield (The pub where the reminiscents of Huddersfield’s genuine Punks used to hang out). That must have been about 1987. Pete Der Van Driver became Pete Der Bass Player in ’89, and Matt stood in for the original drummer (retired for heath reasons) some time in the intervening years.
Feh! We want more. And we get some. After all, it’s a freezing night, and the 30 or so people who are in the pub seem to be friends of someone in one of the bands or bar-staff. I’m sure it would be quite different if it was a bit warmer and in term time, and it didn’t clash with so many Christmas parties. But I’m enjoying the beer, the company and the music, so I’m not complaining.
As I understand it, full electric Sun & the Moon gigs are few and far between, so I’m quite surprised at the venue being only about ½ full (150 people?). But, it would seem that the gig has been picked up on the grapevine, was announced a bit late, and clashes with Depeche Mode, The Doves and The Charlatans. It is also a ball-numbingly cold night, and we’re all hoping that we don’t end up stranded due to a blizzard.
Following on from the BR ticket salesman, we have a scraggly looking roadie and someone’s dad onstage fiddling about with the kit. Hang on! There’s more of them! Bugger me – it’s the entire BR track maintenance crew! One of them, who reminds me of the guy who used to stand outside the Student Union building selling Socialist Worker, steps up to the mike and announces: “We are Biting Tongues”.
They apparently have a fairly weak claim to being a proper Factory band, as a lot of stuff had been released on a different label (I’d never heard of Biting Tongues before tonight). “Not exactly easy listening” I says to Graham, who quite agreed, and suggested I tried to imagine how it went down ¼ of a century ago. Indeed, even after nearly 30 years of listening to music, Biting Tongues is not something that goes in one ear and out of the other – it stays somewhat uncomfortably stuck and rattles about in your head vomiting out noise and ideas. The stuff they have on MySpace is equally challenging, though different in its effect - a bit more trippy, and I’m far more conscious of the importance of the lyrics. Really pioneering stuff!
23:45, and we’re running just a little bit on the late side. Section 25 did not inspire me to write an awful lot. That’s despite a new lineup and a better, more consistant and more confident performance than I’d seen last year at the Ancienne Belgique with Peter Hook.
I’m not going to write stuff just for the sake of it – I’ve already seen some other reviews posted, so please go & look there. Let’s face it – Biting Tongues were one very tough act to follow. As far as I’m concerned, Section25 played Friendly Fires and Dirty Disco, and that kept me happy, but after Biting Tongues, I was feeling somewhat shell-shocked, and SXXV just passed me by as a joyous musical interlude, and a bit of a breather in expectation of what still had to come.
The string section is fabulous. I’d guess they’ve had some freedom in working out the parts, as there’s regular solo work from the violin & viola. Marc’s guitar work is also delightfully precise and controlled, and Michel is in very good voice – better than when I saw them at the BIFF earlier on this year. Overall, I thought that the sound was very consistent and up-to-date, and though I’d had my reservations beforehand, the string section really worked very well indeed. The set was on the short side for my liking – I was hoping we’d get a full album’s worth, but they’ve only got time left to include the obvious singles – Nightshift and Calcutta, and new track Nature of the Beast. Neither Speak My Language nor the excellent Flesh Wounds from the new album get a look in. And after 35 minutes, there’s just time for The Astronaut as a brief encore.
From Glasgow, and originally featuring Bobbie Gillespie, they signed to Factory in 1982 until eventually splitting in 1995. I know we’ve got 2 of the original line up here, but I’m not quite sure who. This is simple, austere New Wave. The excellent bassist is something like Peter Hook playing both the bassline and the bass-solo bit at the same time (if that makes sense), and the sparse keyboards add to a sort of low-tech New-Orderish feel.
The first 2 songs seem to use the same chord sequence and hit the same limited range, strangely devoid of much of a melody. The unimaginative backing vocals from the Renaud the drummer don’t really enhance Soho’s rather flat voice and dubious English pronunciation (imagine Tanita Tikkaram after a bottle of vodka). Soho’s guitar playing is not exactly going to set the world alight either. And pausing for breath in the middle of a word like “only” or “always” is utterly unforgivable – when you sing, you’re at least supposed to be putting some sort of sense into the words, and that means consistant phrasing as well.
Vikki is a rising star in these parts, with appearances at les Nuits Botaniques and Les Ardentes, and a second album due out imminently. Last time I saw her was here at la flute last December (see: 
Mail through Facebook from the Botanique offering free tickets to Stars Like Fleas. Never heard of them. And if there’s “free” places, it implies that the pre-sales have been so crap that the venue is getting desperate for enough people through in the hope they buy a beer or 2 and double the takings.
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