Tonight’s line up is a collaboration between online music culture magazine The Quietus and local DIY events promoters Ideal Mexico, who have been hosting some of the most exciting and diverse gigs in the city recently.
Tonight does not look to disappoint with a balance of homegrown and visiting electronic acts.
The gig opens with Dick-50, a Glasgow super group of sorts, made up of members from bands including Ultimate Thrush and Golden Teacher.
Instead of a conventional linear set up the group are huddled together around a table in front of the stage, making the group look like one sonic organ beating abstract waves into the air.
Their brief experimental set is followed by another local act, hausfrau fronted by Claudia Nova.
Both visually and musically she’s done well to nail the smoky Lynchian mystique that so many artists aim for and miss.
With dark throbbing electro draped in sultry vocals that give a very distinct look, but don’t touch feel.
This is paired with homemade visuals featuring the artist herself, which work especially well with an enchanting rework of Donovan’s ‘Season Of The Witch’, leaving you feeling that you are not just under her gaze but ultimately her spell.
This has perhaps lulled the crowd into a false sense of security, as when Zamilska’s relentless bass kicks in it’s almost startling.
In contrast to hausfrau her stage setup is simple, hidden behind a laptop with just her name on bold white letters for visuals; but this is not necessarily a bad thing, it simply means less distractions and it seems to be working pretty well as the crowd instantly start to feel it.
It is her brand of metallic rhythms that take the core elements of techno and mould it into something excitingly fresh that’s caught the attention and it’s working its magic tonight.
Her set is intriguing in the way that it pulls you close to the verge with its use of ominous samples, but the pushes you away again when turning off in an unexpected musical direction, keeping your attention fully locked.
The interesting thing about the set is that it would have fitted comfortably in a 3am club slot, just as well as the 8pm gig slot, which is part of her charm.
Her disregard for the parameters of traditional dance music is what makes her music and her live sets so dynamic and engaging.
Tracks such as ‘Duel 35’, which feature subtle tribal rhythms and broken by repetitive snippets of spoken words, sound like service announcements in a fraught neo-lunar landscape, one that she’s musically constructed in The Art School’s cavernous Assembly Hall.
As tracks like ‘Revival’ punctuate the air with tightly wound, abrasive percussion, gentle industrial melodies, you start to almost lose a sense of your surroundings completely.
It’s this palette of complimentary sounds woven together impressively that manages to make the crowd move with such agitation, despite the fact it’s still so early in the night.
Still riding off the critical acclaim of 2014’s Unflesh, this is Gazelle Twin’s second outing in Glasgow in six months, however, this time, Elizabeth Bernholz’s dark musical project has the headline slot.
The duo takes the stage in matching tracksuits one red, one blue, hinting at a deceptive sense of childlike innocence.
This paired with what looks like flesh coloured tights over their faces, make them both look like possessed vessels for the music; even more so on the howls of opening track ‘Unflesh’.
As the music builds Bernholz begins to pop and contort her body, which along with the abrasively crashing lights create a glorious sense of unease, which is as hypnotic as it is creepy.
This has become a hallmark of Gazelle Twin’s live shows and perfectly compliments their franticly disjointed, haunted tones, which can be heard tonight on eerie tracks such as ‘Antibody’.
As the set picks up momentum the crowd moves with the music but remains at a cautious distance from stage, as Bernholz stalks it from end to end looking like every bone in her body is out of place, but at the same time refined and elegant.
This is executed with perfection, flowing like her vocals from beautiful notes to ugly grunts in a heartbeat, while the melody swings from gentle drifts to bee like swarms.
At times these two elements collide on tracks, like ‘Belly of The Beast’ with it’s supermarket till beep samples and rickety needlepoint percussion.
This is menacing on the album, but takes on a new level of overwhelming intensity, especially as Bernholz moves as if the waves of sound are making her gag.
The gig closes on ‘Exorcise’, with its nuclear meltdown arpeggios and battle rhythms, it’s a natural choice for a final track as you can feel the pressure building to a point where it almost becomes too much, only to be offered a remedy of nothingness bar the ringing in your ears.
Words: Catriona Reilly
