Efterklang Perform Parades at the Barbican

LISTEN: www.efterklang.net

It's nice when you accidentally stumble into a show that carries a heightened significance for the performers.

I remember seeing Terrorvision in my teens at a sold-out Wolverhampton Civic, and watching their beaming faces as they revealed they'd never played a real 'hall' venue with a balcony before. And Los Campesinos! at ATP were so overcome with pride to be involved that their singer Gareth visibly broke down from the excitement. It adds to a sense of occasion to see a show mean something special to the players.

There might not be any tears and drama on the stage for Efterklang, but the band are visibly thrilled throughout. And fairly so - they are playing with the full Britten Sinfonia, performing huge, impressive arrangements of the songs from their album 'Parades' and it's live counterpart 'Performing Parades'.

The band seemed to have multiplied or the occasion, with what seems like eleven or twelve members in distinctive harlequin-colour sashes, including a three-part choir and the conductor. Some of them shift between instruments, jogging from one side of the stage to the other to switch between drums and organ, trombone and guitar. The arrangements often encompass two or three sections in each song, from subtle string-plucking and organ work to expansive, emotional orchestra swells, to lonesome brass outros. There's never a shortage of exciting sounds and things to lack at with so many performers involved.

Reference points come to mind in droves. Sometimes the lingering arrangements are like the artier moments on Björk's seminal chamber-pop record Vespertine, but without that central show-stopping voice and persona; Casper Clausen's lead vocal is understated by comparison, and allows the ensemble performance to take the limelight.

At other times, I'm reminded of Nico Muhly's avant-garde string arrangements, or the subtle electronic textures of Valgier Sigurðsson's solo work; the militaristic percussion lends a sense of historic grandeur also found in Matmos's 'The Civil War', or in Sons Of Noel & Adrian, who opened the evening's bill in the foyer space.

Efterklang tonight dispel any coffee-table-music stigma that may have come from their earlier recordings. This is an ambitious and talented ensemble giving it their all, and it's a sight and sound to behold. In full flow, they create an epic, utterly absorbing sound that's nothing short of magical.

Gus Gus Keep It Going

MP3: Add This Song (Lopazz and Zarook Remix)
LISTEN: myspace.com/gusgus
BUY: Boomkat

Remember Gus Gus? The breakthrough Icelandic 90s electronic pop collective famous for, amongst other things, having the band's extended retinue (including their accountant and costume designer) in photoshoots and their talismanic jumpsuit-wearing shaven-headed singer Daniel Agust. Their debut album "Polyesterday" was an epic, hazy, genre-straddling electronica opus; "This Is Normal" was the follow-up, taking a more pop direction. It's been ten years since that last release, and 24/7 represents a welcome return.

Reinvented as a tastefully besuited three-piece, Gus Gus have refined their previous exploratory tendencies into a focussed presentation of sensual, glamorous techno. 24/7 is album built from languid beats and Agust's silky crooning. The synths loop tightly, occasionally flowering into pulsing, undulating arpeggios; "The Thinnest ice" builds a simmering tension over it's eight and a half minutes, slowly easing in new elements. "Hateful" explores it's own space as if caged for the first few minutes, before a questionably revenge-minded (but utterly seductive) vocal tirade from Agust, this time delivered in a soul-inflected style.


"Add This Song" is the anthemic finale, with a rising synth line and a slightly faster pace. For something so minimal, it's compulsively catchy and oddly timeless, bringing to mind everything from 80s minimal techno and 90s trance to the booming stadium-dance of Faithless and the recent shimmering electro of The Knife.

24/7 is by far the the most coherent album Gus Gus have produced, and the most one-dimensional as a result; but what's lost in open-hearted experimentalism is made up for with a relentless, hypnotic and diamond-sharp sound.

Gus Gus are gonna conquer Europe with this shit. It's about time.

Aeronauts Ahoy

Watch the amazing We Aeronauts healing hearts with their beautiful songs over at BBC Oxford... and watch this space for future release & tour details...

Internet Forever and Stairs To Korea on Huw Stephens

In case anyone missed the online excitement about this on Twitter, here's a reminder that for the next few days you can Listen Again to this week's Huw Stephens show. It features Brainlove favourites Internet Forever and the first UK radio play for Stairs To Korea. And a conversation about yoghurt. Amazing scenes: In Huw Music We Trust.

Keyboard Wire

Keyboard Choir have a track on this month's Wire Tapper #22, the covermount CD on the esteemed The Wire magazine. It's a track from their recent Electrical Unity EP. The EP is available to download for free from last.fm in conjunction with Brainlove and The Independent Online.

Holiday Reading: Trouble Books, Fuck Buttons, Peter Broderick

So, another Autumn is here. From the window I see gray skies and hear the persistent tapping of rain. But despite the dim light and the muted atmosphere, it's always been my favourite season. Hot soup, mulled wine, darkening evenings, long scarves, warm radiators with the windows sealed firmly shut - and a suitably warming soundtrack.


MP3: Transient Colour Glories

Trouble Books falls from the speakers like swirling orange leaves. Soft-focus and heart-meltingly gentle, "The United Colours Of..." is a perfect autumnal record, wrapping itself around you like a warm blanket. Comforting, considered, wholesome, sweet, funny and more than a little bit twee, the album embraces elements of folk, post-rock, melodic pop, and even a burst of noise or two, to create something enduring and nigh-on perfect.

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Fuck Buttons follow up their breakthrough album Street Horrrsing with Tarot Sport, a seven-track epic produced by Andy Weatherall. The first single Surf Solar seemed to suggest a heavier techno-influenced direction, but thankfully Tarot Sport is rich and varied, flitting between airy, psychedelic repetitions and shattering rhythms, staccato melodies and tectonic planes of distortion. The heightened production values add a gloss to the sound, but this is a Fuck Buttons record through and through - optimistic, wide-eyed, emotionally generous and sonically powerful.

Listen / order the double vinyl

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MP3: Below It

Portland's Peter Broderick was a quiet revelation at Green Man Festival this year. He takes the familiar solo-loop-pedal-guy format and does something genuinely interesting with it, flicking with ease between instruments to create beguiling, haunted, gradually unfurling songs. "Home" is an extremely pleasant listen; thoughtful and gently engaging throughout.

MySpace

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Town & Country, for such a long running project, are a pretty obscure band. Then only mention on eMusic is for a more recent band of the same name, with some comments from disgruntled fans. A little further research shows that they have disbanded and now operate under the monicker DRMWPN. But Town & Country's output was phenomenal, nonetheless. I first found them supporting Godspeed You Black Emperor on the F#A#∞ tour: a hushed little bubble of rapt admirers watched in a sold-out room teeming with chattering, drunk Mancunians. Town & Country played on, sharing conspiratorial smiles with the attentive few. Their purposeful instrumentals slowly unfolded, melding together traditional folk ensemble instrumentation with elements of upbeat post-rock and earthy jazz. "It All Has To Do With It" was duly bought from the merch stand, and at this time of the year it sounds better than ever.

F♯A♯∞, lest we forget....

I recently filled up 8gb on my new phone, and threw in some albums I have previously absolutely adored but haven't listened too for years. In this case, gotta be 7 or 8 years, at least...

Godspeed You Black Emperor were one of the bands that dragged post-rock past Slint-invented, Mogwai-aped dynamics, and evolved it into a heavily political narrative constructed from dark drones, spoken word and epic sonic landscapes. At the time, this shit was really pushing the envelope, and it's all too easy to forget that in hindsight. But the heartbreaking violin, plaintive marching drums and mournful, reverbed guitars still evoke the same bleak post-war-post-society melancholy as they did at the time, and in 2009 this record sounds every bit as angry and sad and fierce and fresh as it did eleven years ago in 1998.



I didn't put it there, but it's up for download on mediafire, like everything else these days. If you wanna buy it, the artwork is characteristically beautiful, so it's worth buying on a physical format, like most Constellation releases. My CD of this is in the very small pile that I'm not planning to get rid of before the removable media apocalypse.

But that kind of apocalypse is a bit crap compared to the doom-laden prospects in F#A#∞. Maybe they should have been asked to do the soundtrack for the forthcoming movie of The Road. I'm worried Nick Cave's score is gonna be a bit too... I dunno. Staged, maybe.