Tag: Stabbing a Dead Horse

Trojan Horse, The Fierce and the Dead, Knifeworld, Stabbing a Dead Horse Live Review.

On By James R TurnerIn progressive rock musicLeave a comment

Stabbing a Dead Horse – Slight Return

Trojan Horse, The Fierce and the Dead and Knifeworld

The Barfly, Camden, Sunday 2nd February 2014.

 Having been championing the Fierce and the Dead and Matt Stevens solo work for large parts of last year in various articles, the opportunity to see them live was too good to miss.

Not only did I get the Fierce and the Dead, I was also lucky enough to see an encore of last years highly acclaimed Stabbing a Dead Horse tour, where these three highly innovative and original bands toured the country.

The Barfly in Camden is a classic British rock club, about as far as its possible to get from overly managed arena gigs as possible, and the tiny room upstairs was full, not just of the bearded middle aged bloke type fan the prog scene is full of, although there were plenty of those there, but there were plenty of women, and lots of youngsters, I know they were young by the fact that at the bar they were whipping our their passports to prove they were old enough to drink.

The site of these young kids cheered me up no-end, as it proved to me that if the youngsters are appreciating this kind of music, then the future is in safe hands.

First up was Mancunian 4 piece psychedelic noise vendors Trojan Horse, whose brand of rock is spacy, heavy, eclectic and hard to pigeonhole, which I suspect is how they like it. With some fantastic three-part vocals from Nick, Lawrence and Eden, and their tight, sound, backed by Guy Crawford on drums they had the Barfly going from the opening bars of their first song.

With musical dexterity, lyrical creativity and a heavy dose of good honest social observation which, in this day and age needs to be done, they gave their all into an almighty half house set, culminating in a legendary performance of their new, epic single Paper Bells, with some fantastic guitar work, a haunting keyboard riff, and some truly arresting lyrics it encapsulates their sound neatly. This was the first time I’d seen Trojan Horse, but on tonight’s evidence it won’t be the last.

Next up were the instrumental behemoth that is The Fierce and the Dead, Matt Stevens (guitar), Kev Feazey (Bass), Steve Cleaton (guitar) and Stuart Marshall (drums). With their latest album, the rather fantastic Spooky Action getting rave reviews wherever it is heard, there’s no surprise that the set was Spooky Action centric. The band were selling copies on the night, but judging by the crowds’ reaction it looked like most of the audience already had it.

On record the Fierce and the Dead are epic, live they are somewhere else entirely, at several points during the set I had to pause and count them, yup, there’s only 4 of them, but hell, they make one massive sound.

With the intensity of Matt Stevens guitar work on one side of the stage, Steve Cleaton on the other, and Kev and Stuart anchoring their guitar guys, the music takes off. Spooky Action tracks like Lets Start a Cult, I like it, I’m into, and the single Ark, were played to perfection, the guitars singing, the bass and drums echoing off the walls. The Fierce and the Dead live are a mighty proposition, like the Wall of Sound mixed with King Crimson and Zappa, throwing mad riffs and impossible tunes out to an appreciative audience who were absolutely loving it.

As a recording act the Fierce and the Dead are amazing, as a live band they are unstoppable and one of the best I’ve seen for a very long time.

Finally up were Knifeworld, a band I’ve been looking forward to seeing for a long time, unfortunately due to the vagaries of British transport times on a Sunday night I had to leave halfway through their set, a fact which disappoints me very much. To console myself I bought their 2 CD’s on the way out to listen to at home.

Again Knifeworld are a unique musical proposition, with the superb guitar and vocals of Kavus Torabi, the traditional band format (keyboards Emmett Elvin, drums Ben Woolacott, bass Charlie Cawood) is expanded by the sound of Chloe Herington (bassoon, sax, vocals) Josh Perl (sax, guitar, vocals) Nicki Maher (clarinet, sax, backing vocals) and Melanie Woods (percussion, glockenspiel, backing vocals) and this addition of a horn section gives them an edge live.

Opening with the latest single download Don’t Land on Me, which gives you a good introduction to the work of Knifeworld, with its huge sound and great vocals, then a set full of crowd pleasers like The Wretched Fathoms and Torch, Knifeworld are an impressively tight live act. Torabi is a magnetic frontman, a charismatic performer, with superb guitar skills and great vocals, whilst the sound that Herington, Perl and Maher produce in union is fantastic.

I have it on good authority that Knifeworld continued to perform a fantastic set, and it’s a pity I couldn’t see the end of it.

Overall it was a fantastic evening of great music, watching three totally different bands own the stage, and show the most inventive, eclectic and entertaining live line up I have seen together for a long time.

The future of this wonderfully diverse genre we call prog is in safe hands, and I had the pleasure of seeing three of its most interesting bands perform live.

Stabbing That Dead Horse a Second Time!

On By bradbirzerIn Progarchy2 Comments
Thanks to The Chaos Engineers (at least we hope they don’t mind that we use this photo)

[N.B.  I asked my friend, Ian, to write this up.  He told me that he wasn’t “really a writer, but that he’d give it a go.”  As you can readily see, Ian is a spirited writer!  And, I’m very proud to have him among this group of insane progarchists.  And, for attentive readers, you know that we’ve posted another review of the tour here.  Thanks to Ian and Nick for such excellent insights.  And, yes, Matt Stevens, we obviously really love you.]

 

The Lexington, London Friday 2nd November 2012

I had never been to the Lexington before. 5 minutes walk from the centre of Islington, The Lexington is a bustling pub down the Pentonville Road. Downstairs is a pleasingly traditional bar selling an impressive selection of real ales and lagers, including some from the USA (Sierra Nevada Torpedo 7.3%!!!). Upstairs is a large room converted into a small music venue with a raised bar area looking down on a standing area and stage.

This was the last leg of the brief UK Tour featuring Trojan Horse, The Fierce and the Dead and headliners Knifeworld. Sponsored by Prog magazine but effectively funded by the bands themselves, the tour had reached as far north as Glasgow but was finishing in the home town of members of TFATD and Knifeworld.

Pigshackle

To warm proceedings up, local 4 piece band Pigshackle, who have been around for 8-10 years, took to the stage. They treated us to a blend of dissonant, experimental music and, metal (in all its various guises) with an obvious King Crimson influence (which the band themselves quite happily admit).

One of my friends said they initially reminded him of free jazz group Last Exit (Bill Laswell, Sonny Sharrock etc) although he later retracted this, pointing out that Last Exit make a free form unstructured ‘noise’ whereas Pigshackle play a tightly disciplined ‘noise’. The set appeared to consist of one long track lasting about 30 minutes although as I discovered afterwards talking to the band, they, in fact, had played 4 tracks. The music was punctuated with occasional growling, shouting and screaming, some in death metal mode; discordant saxophone and frequent key and time signature changes for the lead guitarist, whose array of effects pedals was reminiscent of NASA Mission Control. Obviously skilled musicians, Pigshackle were tight and disciplined. The sound quality excellent with an emphasis on LOUD, so loud at times it was seriously chest-filling. The music pushes the boundaries and is challenging, at times gloomy with very few uplifting melodies but its worth having a listen to. Check out their recent album Unplug the Sun on Bandcamp.

Trojan Horse

Hailing from Salford, this 4 piece band, with their checked shirts and beards and looking like hillbillies from the Appalachians, conjured up music in my mind that would follow a similar path, i.e. with instruments including fiddle, harmonica and Jew’s harp. I was very wrong. Their website claims they have brought Yes, King Crimson and Tull ‘…kicking and screaming through the subsequent decades…’. So I was intrigued… Unfortunately things started badly with an amp being blown causing a hiatus lasting about 10 minutes with the other members of the band ‘filling in’ while the keyboard player franticly tried to get his keyboard working. Amusing banter from the band maintained a good atmosphere while the technical gremlins were sorted out but it obviously affected  their set.

Personally I find it difficult to define their music as Prog, well certainly not in the traditional sense. The opener ‘Fire’ from their recent EP sounded more reminiscent of classic indie-punk and at about 2 minutes long was the right length for this genre (pronk, prunk?). However the rest of the set was energetic and intelligent music, at times heavy, with even a touch of ‘funk’. A special mention for a bravura performance from the bass player (great posturing!). Check them out.

The Fierce and the Dead

Next up was Matt Steven’s (relatively) new vehicle, TFATD, a 4 piece band playing purely instrumental music. Matt is a gifted guitarist, totally in control of his instrument but like all the bands on view during the evening, all the band members were exceptional. TFATD have recently released a new EP ‘On VHS’ following their unusually titled album from 2011 ‘If It Carries On Like This We Are Moving To Morecambe’. Well, if it carries on like this they should achieve the recognition they deserve and be playing bigger venues than Morecambe (for the benefit of non-UK readers, Morecambe is a rather old-fashioned seaside resort in the north of England). The music is held together by strong bass-lines and very energetic drumming and is characterised by simple, ‘catchy’ melodies and riffs. At times Mogwai-esqe without the multi-layered guitars, the music was both heavy and light and I would say they occupy the post-rock side of the ‘Prog spectrum’. Played with plenty of creativity and enthusiasm the set finished far too quickly for my liking. Excellent stuff.

Knifeworld

By the time Knifeworld took the stage the venue was almost full and there was an atmosphere of heightened expectancy… could they add the icing to the cake? Led by Kavus Torabi, known for his work with the Cardiacs, I’ve read that this is experimental, psychedelic, art-rock. An 8 piece band including saxophone(s), bassoon(!) and multiple backing singers. Torabi is a natural ‘rock star’, full of charisma, with his witty, intelligent remarks going down well with the crowd.  He is also an exceptionally gifted songwriter and guitarist. My first impression that the music was going to be different was the look in Kavus’s eyes that to me indicated a likeable form of mild insanity. The complexity of the arrangements were superbly handled on a crowded stage with a small PA system. It’s difficult to categorise or describe the music as it’s, in a sense, ‘genre-less’. The music is involving and journey-like, twisting and turning in different directions. The encore, a song from the new EP, ended up with the members of all four bands singing along which was a nice touch, as was Kavus’s dedication to Cardiacs front man Tim Smith. Highly recommended.

This gig attracted some peer group interest as spotted in the crowd were a number of prog ‘celebrities’ – Sel Balamir of Amplifier and John Mitchell of It Bites/Frost/Kino amongst them. Also enjoying the music was Steve Davis, snooker legend, long-time prog-rock fan and now radio presenter.

Overall what impressed me with this gig was not just the superb musicianship, variety, complexity and originality of the music but the real enthusiasm shown by all the bands. It’s great to see bands enjoying themselves, interacting with the audience and helping each other out (fixing technical problems,videoing each other and joining each other on stage). This attitude is infectious and creates a great atmosphere.

With bands like this around the state of modern prog is in good hands.

—Ian Greatorex is a 50 yr old accountant with more time on his hands now both his children are (sort of) adults. He has a love for all types of music from classical through jazz to heavy rock and metal.