They are very tight, very well produced and with a good sound system supporting them they once again proved their worth. The crowd grew in size and they drew an enthusiastic response from both their fans and the other bands alike. This is a band who sound just as good and polished live as they do on their studio recordings.

Next up were ‘Eschar‘ from Guildford, who have side-stepped the problems of writing lyrics and having a vocalist, but being an instrumental band. They are also very progressive, musically, but a dash of metal gives it a slightly heavier edge. They are a real bands, band and are always a big hit with bands they support. They also had plenty of support from the crowd, so I was feeling somewhat out of step with popular opinion. I rather like the presence of a human voice and miss the lyrics which make the songs much more interesting and meaningful to me.

The legendary ‘As Gods‘ were up next, a band who have been playing this venue is various guises over many years. They keep getting invited back, because they are just so popular. They are also very good, playing in real old, classic heavy metal style.

They have big epic songs, with visions of Vikings and Armageddon – it is all very entertaining indeed. Technically they are as tight and proficient as any other band here tonight, but somehow seem better able to deliver with a bit more feeling and fun. And front man Howie is such a show-off, it makes them all the more memorable.

The head-line band tonight were ‘Heights‘ who are definitely local favourites. Even though they are only a three-piece, they were never-the-less more then able to hold their own against any of the other bands on the bill. Very good musicians, playing a range of interesting and challenging songs to the largest crowd of the night.

Technically they were the best, but I found their delivery a little static, whereas the other bands hand moved around a bit thus reinforced the impact their music had. That said, there is no denying that they do what they do well playing what is pretty much classical music of the rock world.

A big thanks to all the bands, Centre manager Catherine and all the staff and volunteers for a great night out.

Neil Duncan
ISSUEPUNKZINE

ARTIST: Silent Descent
RELEASE: Mind Games

So this is all-comers Naughties Metal then: blocks of 4/8 bars of shrieking move into Hardcore grunts and ‘bwaabwaa’-ing and ultimately, inevitably, big Bennington-style nasal choruses where the words “ooooo”, “baby” and “scarred” wouldn’t look out of place. But Metal has long been 40-50% cheese content and Silent Descent are pros at every aspect so it goes down smoother than olive oil. The compressed American-style mix is a clean, shiny affair but the addition of such upfront keys somehow re-Europises your impression of the band, all of whom are clearly working flat-out here.

While this is impressive, this kind of thing dates FAST and unlike the US where bands like Static-X can drag out a living in the live arena, UK audiences have significantly less patience for any newly redundant sub-genres and the window of opportunity must be narrowing.

Cradle Of Filth’s Sarah Jezebel Deva makes a guest appearance and with Bizarre’s cover girl Vikki Blows on the artwork they’ve ticked a few more boxes for the readers of Britain’s main Metal publications. Perhaps I should’ve put that at the start and saved you the review.

7/10

Grayshott Village Hall, Thursday 26 April 2012

A ‘murder mystery musical’? Sounds suspicious to me – and in the wrong hands might prove to be *ahem* a fate worse than death.

Fortunately the Grayshott Stagers production of ‘Something’s Afoot’ left the audience the victim of nothing more fatal than helpless giggles, unlike on stage where the body count kept climbing.

Ten people have been summoned for a meeting with Lord Dudley Rancour on his isolated estate. All the guests believe they are the only ones invited, and have no idea why the others are there.

As they arrive, a raging storm washes out the bridge (I’m sure the terrible weather and floods in East Hampshire this weekend are just a coincidence and Grayshott Stagers cannot be blamed in any way).

Shortly after the guests discover someone has killed the phones by cutting through the cable with garden shears – and gradually the characters end up as dead as the line.

Far from murdering the much loved detective genre, this parody – clearly inspired by classic mysteries from the likes of Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan-Doyle – is a respectful homage.

The usual suspects are all present and correct – the busybody amateur sleuth, the colonel, the greedy heir, the secret illegitimate child – but whodunnit?

In an interesting twist it’s certainly not the butler, who has a rather spectacular death right at the beginning, thanks to some marvellous special effects which made all of us jump.

Miss Tweed (splendidly played by Sara Rowe) is the ‘Miss Marple’ archetype, and it is her theories and suspicions that fuel most of the action.

Other notable performances include the delightfully dizzy and slightly saccharine ingénue Hope Langdon (Susie Dean) who flutters her way into the heart of uninvited guest Geoffrey (Jason Davenhill), a college boy, who escapes drowning but lives (barely) to regret finding shelter at the house.

Perhaps one of the most laugh out loud moments is the completely over the top death-by-poison of Colonel Gillweather, shortly after rediscovering his long lost love Lady Grace Manley-Prowe (Brezetta Thonger), whose attempts to seduce her former paramour had us in stitches.

Laura Musco (who played Dr Grayburn) was also responsible for the extremely clever choreography, one of the hardest things to get right in a production. Here it was perfectly judged – uncomplicated enough to be manageable by an amateur cast, but interesting enough to add a bit of dash and verve.

The set also deserves a mention – its multi-doored, panelled look is perfect, and there are a number of clever booby traps and devices hidden throughout – things fall from the ceiling and pop out of walls; one character is even devoured by a large vase.

If there is one element that doesn’t always hit quite the right note it is the songs. Despite the splendid efforts of the orchestra, some members of the cast clearly struggled with some of the trickier musical moments – some of the higher passages strangled as surely as one of the unfortunate characters.

Having said that a personal highlight for the show was the duet between caretaker Flint (Ellis Nichols) and saucy maid Lettie (Amy Turner) – their naughty number ‘Teeny little dinghy’ was full of double entendre and nearly brought the house down.

Overall, despite the shocking death toll in this delightfully bonkers Cluedo-style musical, it was a great night out and fully deserved the enthusiastic applause of the audience.

It would have been a crime to miss it.

ARTIST: School Of Seven Bells
RELEASE: The Night (single – inc. Kiss Them From Me)

Poptastic! Don’t you love the 80s guuuuyzzz?! Does everyone still love the 80s? Weren’t they a miserable grey sprawl of industrial strikes and class division broken up by the occasional taste-free pop video with garish crimson/turqoise Fender Strats, chessboard floor tiles and vast quiffs (I’m looking at YOU Nick Lowe)?

WHAT”S WRONG WITH EVERYONE?! It’s like celebrating the Holocaust.

Bleagh. Despite snapping as a result of eeeevery bleeding single harking back fondly to the days of Pop so vapid you could vacuum pack it as an airline pudding, this gets saved by the comparative groundedness of B-Side, Kiss Them From Me.

A-Side The Night isn’t so atrocious but these artists are frequently at the mercy of their producers and the current vogue for making everything sound like 1986. One downside of this mimicry (used to pull on your cultural nostalgia) is that the song gets lost in triggered memories of Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel and Madonna singles, rendering all but the strongest writing obsolete.

Kiss Them From Me is much more distinctive though, even here, the busy producer oversteps the mark like an excitable school play donkey stealing the show from Baby Jesus by deliberately breaking wind or bursting into a tuneless but confident rendition of The Wheels On The Bus.

Not bad but over-produced to the detriment of the whole.

6/10

ARTIST: M83

Anthony Gonzalez’s new M83 double album (Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming from which Reunion is the 2nd single) is making broadsheet critics micturate their goose down duvets with joy nationwide but, from this adequate release, I’m baffled as to why.

Something about his back-catalogue is clearly very impressive and this leap into Pop music unexpected. Meh.

Having read the press release beforehand I found Reunion a little underwhelming, in-keeping with the 80′s theme the popstrel kids can’t leave alone at the moment.

Much more fun are the Mylo and Sei remixes, particularly the former. The strength of the Mylo mix is in the use of an unabashedly Disco synth line. I imagine we’ll be hearing Mylo’s remix on adverts within the year.

6/10

ARTIST: Pulled Apart By Horses
RELEASE: Wolf Hand

The most important thing you should know about this song is that it contains the refrain “When I was a kid I was a d**k, but nothing changes”.

Smirk ye fule.

This track is fun and as sweaty and enthusiastic as The Vines with a copy of the Profanasaurus and a bucket of narcotics.

Kiddies take note – sometimes getting a good review is as easy as making reviewers giggle soup from the nose. Boom!

8.5/10

ARTIST: Battles
RELEASE: ICE CREAM/ROLLS BAYCE REMIX SINGLE

Now I was under the impression that this splendid band were splitting-up so it was a pleasant surprise to see these remixes arrive, and with the assurances of live dates in the near future.

So much for internet witterings.

This dual single remix release is a hopeful job, a merry blend of positive if aimless pottering and upbeat Nintendo tones.

Not as thrilling in this format as the originals perhaps but still pretty solid work.

6/10

ARTIST: The Maccabees
RELEASE: Given To The Wild (album)

From the get go The Maccabees keep the quality as high as the heady vocal register throughout this album. From quite early on this really sounds like work crafted in the studio, production being as big and spacey as tunes, dripping with delay and warm, peripheral synths.

Arrangement here has masterful touches, layers and sections build and dissipate in a satisfyingly cinematic fashion, instruments regularly dropping-out to casual, busy beats. It is all done in a traditional way that makes you nostalgic for the days of a big money music business with development funds to pour into studio time.

Given To The Wild sounds expensive too, lush with effects and unobtrusive harmonies and with the kind of sonic depth you could lose a tennis ball down.

If you had to find fault with it you’d certainly be looking in this region – a wall of effects can make for a daunting listen but the tiptoe-ing vocal performances set the listener up for that alternate headspace, disbelief set aside.

Vocally it meanders around the gentler Indie area while occasionally pulling-out flashes of Bon Iver and that odd adanoidal thing nailed by Anthony Johnson and Robert Smith. Even when the music becomes a towering rage of effects and instruments, voices remain a calm centre to the aural storm and you can’t help spending time appreciating the technology that allows an album like this to sound so palpably just there and full-bodied.

8/10

ARTIST: Blood Red Shoes
RELEASE: In Time To Voices (album)

Remember when girls were allowed to play guitar rawk eh? You remember?! Around the time of that first Gulf Wartchamacallit? Well Blood Red Shoes are doing a sterling job at this thoroughly illegal activity and with some gusto.

Comparing all male-fronted bands to other all male-fronted bands is an easier bag, a reviewer is less likely to come across as sexist by virtue of the fact that there are so many of them but the voice is the ‘face’ of a band on record and it makes sense to draw comparisons within the gender pool, especially when dealing with a whole album. With that in mind…

Sometimes Blood Red Shoes play like a less-addled and gentler Hole with Blondie’s outboard fx, occasionally like Elastica fronting The Pixies, even Ash fronting Bush – it is nearly always almost Grunge but with something holding it back from total genre commitment and full shirt-ripping heaviness. That isn’t a criticism, it is just interesting.

This band clearly want a lot, they want to get into all the strange 90′s-rooted nerd boxes Rock had laid out. Both male and female vocalists give great performances but the distinctive latter is certainly the USP here. Musically In Time To Voices doesn’t try to break any moulds but there is variety for (90′s) Rock fans (many of whom might find musicians with ambition a turn-off).

Good sturdy songs + some grimy riffs, may need to stop conditioning/ironing the plaid to get to next level.

7.5/10

Eugene Onegin – English Touring Opera – G Live, Guildford
24th April 2012

The G Live audience were treated to some fine singing in an atmospheric production of one of Tchaikovsky’s best known operas.

In the opening scene, depicting rural life at the Larin’s estate, we were first introduced to the heroine, Tatyana, singing a beautiful duet with her sister Olga, played respectively by Sarah-Jane Davies and Niamh Kelly . The contrast between the sad and dreamy Tatyana and her gay and carefree sister was well expressed, and contrasted with the resigned worldliness of their nursemaid, sung with wry humour by Frances McCafferty.

The male leads were well cast, Nicholas Lester giving us a mulish and insensitive Onegin who spurns Tatyana’s advances and offends his old friend Lensky by making advances to his girlfriend Olga. Lensky, sung with great poignancy by Jaewoo Kim, takes exception to his friend’s behaviour and the happy atmosphere of the ball suddenly turns sour as the two men head inextricably towards a duel, and Lensky’s death.

It must be said that the plot of this opera is pretty depressing. Both of the main male characters are sad individuals, the needy Lensky hopelessly and pathetically in love, and Onegin blind to the needs of anyone but himself. Even at the end, when Onegin begs Tatyana, now a happily married princess, to forgive him and take him back, it is impossible to feel any sympathy for him, or to understand how she could possibly still be in love with him.

Musically, there were some lovely moments and the singing and orchestra were great. There is some well known occasional music in this opera, but you do not leave the theatre with any of the arias ringing in your ears.

The set was dominated by a huge mirrored screen set diagonally across the stage, and through which it was possible to see a scene behind it. Sadly, though, not if you were sitting on the left hand side of the auditorium, as the edge of it physically blocked the view!

However, the screen really came into its own as the action progressed, and Lensky waited outside for his duel with Onegin, when an image of sheets of paper floating down was projected onto it, very effective on the darkened stage. It also served to give a wonderful impression of a crowded room in the two ball scenes, and enhanced some really excellent lighting. This, together with very tasteful and understated costumes, made for a visually most elegant production.

I would definitely go to see this fine company again, but perhaps not this particular opera.