Gnod
The Dalston Victoria is a shabby and rather battered looking
pub on the outside. There is a bouncer on the door. It’s not particularly
inviting. Inside, there is a pervading
and rather noisome odour that I eventually track down to the Thai curries that
are on offer. These don’t seem that inviting either.
There is a sign on the door that gives the running times for
tonight’s bands. It is quite clear that these are wildly optimistic.
Tonight is an Upset the Rhythm promotion. This means that
you can be sure of two things. That there will be great music and that the
evening will run in a chaotic fashion.
We are eventually ushered into the back room to be
confronted with drum and noise duo Gum Takes Tooth.
Things start promisingly. There is a lot of electronic
equipment onstage and this is used to good effect to distort the sound and
rhythm of the drum kit and assist the vocalist, who spends much of his time
shouting down what appears to be a small handheld megaphone with the end taped
up.
There is nothing wrong with the band that couldn’t be solved
with an ‘edit’ button. Drummer Thomas is impressive and vocalist Jussi looks
like a scuzzy janitor from a Scooby Doo cartoon. I’m happy with them both,
although they do rather outstay their welcome.
After a brief hiatus the room is set for Gnod. And Gnod are
a revelation.
From their recorded work I had mistakenly formed a mental
image of a band with long hair blasting out spacey and psychedelic rock music.
What I actually get is a dark room piled high with electronics and strobe
lights and lots of musicians slaving away over their equipment like an infernal
sweatshop.
Gnod have eschewed the stage and have set up their banks of
gear on the floor. This allows the crowd to press right up to them. Not that this is possible, as the way is
barred by a howling vocalist, screaming his lungs out through a microphone that
distorts his voice and adds it to the thunderous cacophony.
This is wild music that feels like standing in a gale at the
top of a cliff. It’s all around you, lifting you up and buffeting you about. The
darkness adds to the experience, the strobes like flashes of lightning that
momentarily illuminate a musician pounding away at a bench of wires and dials.
It’s disorienting and wonderful. This electronic music
sounds organic and dirty rather than calculated and clean. It’s the
anti-Kraftwerk and more akin to Rough Trade era Cabaret Voltaire (if the Cabs
had been strapped to a Saturn rocket).
Time and space mean nothing and such is the volume and power
unleashed that it continues to whoosh around your head even when the band have
finished and left the room.
Gnod is good. Gnod is great. Thanks be to Gnod.
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