Cove, S&M, and Early Mammal - Gig review/rant from June

Cor what a great gig! Just got in (1.18am here - having had to leave the gig at 10.30pm!) Finally met Tony David and Stephen in real life - lovely fellas, absolute delight finally hooking up AND two of them are in Cove who produced a venue-scalding set - wherein a broken string transformed their noise-rock-kraut-funk into an ecstatic delay bleeding meltdown. Also finally got to see Early Mammal and they did not disappoint. Acid-Psych-Stone(r)-Space tinges but lifted into the magical realm by dint of a superb drummer, an almost psychic bassist AND incredible organ-shenanigans run through a nest of very tasty pedals (think i spotted a malfunctioning mooger fooger) Jono Wright has to see this lot! S&M are darker...so dark they asked for the lights to be switched off. She's on drums, and he's on acoustic guitar wired up with arcane electronics whose entrails spew out the back and into an old suitcase wherein terrible homemade elec-trickery produces - many lost voices, churning tectonics, horrific frequencies, and much arsequaking. It's an eldritch thing. That was compounded as I stepped out for air/sanity by my first encounter with the Roof Dog! and child! Hell-Houndage! Great venue (Windmill Brixton), great crowd, great staff, great bands.

Early Mammal - My Fire (Convoy Records)

I have been blown away by this promo twice today! Think Pink Floyd soundtrack work circa 1970 and Irmin Schmidt's incredible 3 album run of 'filmmusik' + 'Toy Planet' 1980-81. Yes THAT good! Eurorock pulses; a bit of SanFranjam; driving around mainland Europe in the early 70's in a lorry left over from the war, worried about the last generation's involvement...easily the best recording I've yet heard from them but, once again, nothing like their tremendous live show = valve amps-wall of cabs- everyone dies overdrive...but the grooves are still tight (their drummer is superb and I think the stand-in bass-player is his brother? tight/looseness abides)

 

 

 Update - the cassette has been released but ltd edition of 50!