| debaser, My Life in Pictures & Loki at Drouthie Neebours, Dundee 25/10/01 |
| From La Realistica Loki + Mylifeinpictures + Debaser Drouthy Neebors Dundee Usually I write my reviews the day after the gig (or sometimes when I get home) but evil night shifts combined with finishing the first Thee Moths record has meant that this has waited for more than a week. Luckily I took lots of notes during the show (which led one person asking if I was a journalist - I said 'no'). Loki have been around in Dundee for a few years now, starting out as a noisy guitar pop band who used to sometimes cover Magnectic North Pole songs as their encore (very flattering I assure you), since then 2/3rds of the band have become half of Yessa de Paso and the Loki sound has changed accordingly. The main thing that struck me about this is that maybe they haven't progressed in a *good* way. The reason people loved Loki in the first place was the fact that they played great POP! tunes like "Dark Island", songs that you could hum along to. The new material, some of which was aired tonight, sounded a lot like Yessa de Paso and quite a bit like Laeto which is really too 1998 for this punters ears. However, they did pull out one trick which was fucking immense. Partway through one of the tracks the guitar turned into the sound of an evilly fucked synth and I was left thinking of the Aphex Twin....if they can continue to make noises like that then Loki really have a future, if not then I fear they will become lost in the thousands upon thousands of other bands doing exactly the same kind of thing. Mylifeinpictures are kind of a Salvation By Stories/Nikita side project. They were really, really bad....so I am not going to review them on the weakness of one gig. A couple of days after the show John (vocals and guitar) sent me a demo tape which is a million times better (see music reviews). Last up are debaser who a week or so earlier split with their guitarist/vocalist in less than friendly circumstances. Happily they don't miss him. If anything their poppy noise is improved by lowering the level of sonic mush. They may not have the strongest voices in the world (though Ross really finds his feet about 3 songs in) but they entertained the room and seemed relaxed and happy. The highlight for me was the virtual (and unintended) cover of the J Geils Bands "Centrefold" which had me and Doug from 1"Volcano crying with laughter (but in a good way). Debaser have come a long way and are at the beginning of a new stage to their existance, a next step they are very able to take. La Realistica give an overall 7/10 |
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