CARGO CULTE - considerable return

Talking of which, here is a recycled piece about a concert I was at recently. On stage were United Bible Studies, Slomatic, and CIRCLE. I have already mentioned this concert.

Some of my friends are more broadminded than others. The other day I was talking to some folk about music, when the subject of Estel, United Bible Studies, & the Dublin improv scene generally came up, a somewhat odd juxtaposition as Estel have never seemed that improv based. Anyway, it was asserted most assuredly by come of my associates that the Dublin improv scene generally is mostly rubbish, and that Estel & United Bible Studies are the two worst bands in Dublin EVER. My beloved suggested that our conversants were working to an old-school rockist pre-punk perspective where only virtuoso musicians are allowed make music. I largely bit my tongue (ow), as at that point I was unfamiliar with United Bible Studies and know next to nothing about the Dublin improv scene; Estel, meanwhile, are probably the most impressive live band I have seen in Dublin in recent years, at least prior to their split.

Anyway, it was with some amusement a few weeks later that I found myself at a gig being promoted by one of the post-Estel factions and featuring United Bible Studies on the bill. It turns out that some of the UBS know one of my other friends (let's call him "Mark"), so without realising it I was sitting at a table with them before they played. Good job I didn’t say “I am really looking forward to seeing United Bible Studies, I hear they are the worst band in Dublin EVER”.

UBS were the first band on the bill. What did I think of them? Well, they are not the worst band in Dublin EVER. And they are a game of two halves, with their sound being an odd dialectic between nicey folk-tinged stuff and weirdo improv madness. They tended to flit from one to the other in a devil-may-care style. And there were loads of them onstage, always a good thing. At one point they reminded me a bit of Avarus, only they’re not *that* good. There was also a bit where the singey bloke was going on a bout Jesus in a repetitive manner, and it did strike me as being a bit derivative of that ‘Mary Mary’ track by Can, but not so much that I’ll be reporting them to the Central Improv Plagiarism Court. And you know, having influences is not crime. So yeah, United Bible Studies, they’re grand, and I do not understand the loathing their name excites in certain quarters. I dunno… | think one thing people tend to forget with improv is how funny it all is. I got great mileage out of watching the band arse around with finger symbols and ash-trays and then looking at all the po-faced punters in the audience.

Slomatic were up next. These fellows were from up North, and are one of those heavy metal bands. It’s great that someone is still making this kind of music, and so loudly. They must have found the experience a bit weird, though, as the audience was mainly composed of Dublin scenesters, not people known for their love of early Metallica. That said, they weren’t obviously carried out of town on a rail, so maybe metal is where it’s at with today’s hipsters. Slomatic come from the loud, slow, (almost) no-vocals school of metal, though they still have drums and play music which would sound terrifyingly fast compared to the likes of ((((SUNN))))). I enjoyed them a lot, and certainly had my tiredness swept away by their military onslaught.

The last band were called CIRCLE, and they were the one people were here to see. Maybe you have heard of them? They are from Finland, and they’ve been going since the early 1991. People had recommended them highly to me, hence my presence. There seemed to be four of them – a drummer wearing a mask over his eyes, a hairy rocker on bass, a topless catamite on guitar, and Jimi Tenor’s heavy metal brother on keyboards and vocals.

CIRCLE cooked up a bit of a racket. At first I thought maybe they sounded a bit like some kind of Hawkwind tribute act – not a problem, certainly, but not exactly the future of music. Their own sound became clearer to me as the gig developed. I don’t know if this was because they played more unique tunes or if I became more discerning, but either way they sucked me into a new dimension of sound. For all that some people were describing them as being somewhat metallic, this seemed more trancey and rhythmic than that adjective would suggest, and the whole thing was a bit more art-rocky. The chap’s singing in foreign obviously helped, with the crazy sounds of Finnish making him sound like he was blessed with glossolalia or speaking in tongues or some such.

"Mark" got a bit relaxed and danced like a loon at the front. I was a bit *tired* and hogged the seats. Part of the fun with the gig was playing spot the hipster… there were so many of them here, with every second person being someone from a band, someone from a club night, one of those people you see at every gig, or me.

Deadly buzz, basically. Go and see CIRCLE if they come to party your town.

On the way home we noticed that STRING-FELL-OWS is still open.

I always skip the long, dull posts on other people's blogs, so I apologise for inflicting this on you.