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Now, gigging at The Monarch is usually a religious
experience but tonight, well, tonight I can’t help but
feel like I’m being thrown in to the purgatory which
is 'ambience'.
My Computer’s album, Vulnerablia, released
on October 14th on 13 Amp Records has been greatly
acclaimed but more prominent in my mind is its description
as both ‘interesting’ and ‘eclectic’. Their own team
adds that it is ‘properly all over the place’. God help
us, purgatory it is then.
The twenty or so people hanging back at the bar at 8
o’clock, or rather their disinterested expressions,
do not bode well for an evening of great musical accomplishment
but I try to keep an open mind. Luckily, the ultimate
mind-broadener comes in the form of Pariah. These
kids grab my attention and not just because their equipment
teeters precariously at the edge of the stage. Despite
voice struggles - the leads’ Mercury Rev tones
battling with late nights and far too much smoke (passive
of course), the promise is still audible. Yes they are
shoe-gazy more often that not, (think adolescent Thom
Yorke with a passing interest in Linkin Park)
but with the best possible intentions and as a precursor
to the mix and match which is My Computer, perfection
itself.
Having secured myself the highly desirable bar side
viewing position, a huge roar goes up and I turn round
to discover that in the time it takes to say, ‘Mines
a Grolsch thanks mate’, half of Camden seems to have
snuck in to the room. So, now the stage is set for some
excitement and judging by the continued heckling from
the gig going public, they know this from experience.
Am I the only one here even slightly dubious of these
new ‘electro-Smiths’?
As Chesy and Dave Luke, the two lads at the heart of
the Mancunian My Computer, climb on to stage
they look suspiciously unlike the musical saviours I’ve
been lead to expect, all short hair and non-descript
clothing. But signed to 13 Amp, the home of David
Holmes, its only right that I expect the unexpected.
And fuck me, My Computer really are unexpected.
Against all my better judgement, (that part of me screaming
‘they can’t even decide on a decent name never mind
a musical genre’) I’m impressed. As first single ‘All
I ever really wanted was a good time’ spins around and
around the confines of The Monarch all vocoder and keyboards,
I find not only is my head spinning around with it but
I’m actually mumbling along. If Danny Boyle were to
foolishly decide to make ‘Trainspotting 2’, this would
be its soundtrack:
I have made a mess of me
I have made no currency
I went left instead of right
I don’t have a light…..
All I ever really wanted was a good time.
Not unlike The Cocteau Twins having an argument
with the boys from Underworld, the opening is
a genuinely uplifting experience in a gritty kind of
way, but after the second and third tune of the evening,
I’m beginning to see a formula. The downfall of My
Computer? Every other tune opens with the admittedly
beautiful but regretably similar melodic, synthed-out
style that spirals up and up until....... well essentially
until they get bored and tear it down in to a dance
floor friendly bassline.
Slightly repetitive as their organised musical mayhem
may be, it could in its shining moments teach Dr Frankenstein
a thing or two. With the Death in Vegas vibe
of Rope and just a twinge of Bowie in Chesy’s
angelic vocals on the Time for This finale they really
are creating beautiful mutants, tearing genres limb
from limb and stapling them back together.
Whilst every middle class, art school-er with shabby
hair and equally shabby tunes preaches the futility
of it all, these ex-dole, ex-dealers get on with the
business of speaking from experience and in the process
have cut and pasted their way in to my CD collection
(if not quite my heart).
Keep a firm eye on these boys.
Kim for Crud Magazine© 2002
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10/02 Ladytron - Seveteen
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12/02 Burning Brides Interview
12/02 D4 - Live - Mean Fiddler, London
12/02 Kickrollers
12/02 Top Ten Albums 2002
January 2001
July - August 2001
September - October 2001
November - December 2001
January - March 2002
April - July 2002
August - December 2002 | |
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