Review: B/B/S

I don't know why, but January is very slow concert-wise. There was only one gig I was really looking forward to see. B/B/S at Monarch last Wednesday. B/B/S is a kind of a new trio of Berlin based expats, consisting of Canadian Aidan Baker, Italian Andrea Belfi and Norwegian Erik Skodvin. If you recognise these names you will probably know what to expect, if you don't know them I'll shortly tell you who they are. Well, all three are well known in the field of experimental music. Aidan Baker plays his drony guitar in Nadja and solo and you might have read about him a couple of times on our little blog. Andrea Belfi is mostly an experimental drummer, but also an electro-acoustic musican and composer who, for instance, played with David Grubbs or Stefano Pilia. The last one is Erik Skodvin, who plays from time to time under his moniker Svarte Greiner and is also part of Deaf Center. Both musical projects are subsumable under the term dark ambient. So, they are not the new neo-folk ensemble, instead they formed the most exciting trio in experimental and improvised music I know.

Everything started around a year ago when these 3 guys played together for the first time as a supporting act for A-Sun Amissa at West Germany. It was such cool performance that they decided to continue their work. Some shows were played and an album recorded. Last Wednesday's performance was originally planned as a record release party, but unfortunately Brick Mask wasn't ready on time.

Nevertheless, they played, in fact, two long sets. The first one started with a bowing ritual. A dark and droning tone appeared and Monarch's packed audience freezed. As Baker and Skodvin are rooted in doomy and dark music, distorted guitars are nothing uncommon. It was mostly drummer Belfi who set the tone. In the beginning more abradant and then more and more jazzy. The whole first set felt like the score to an unknown road movie by Wim Wenders and David Lynch. Scary, dusty, brutal and also tenacious.

The second set started louder and way more rock-like. Shorter than the first one but still intoxicating. For me, who is not a musician, I find it very interesting how they set the mood for their compositions. As Erik told me before, they did not have the time to rehearse, so everything was mostly improvised and it's unbelievable how good it sounded. All three gave each other enough space to develope an extraordinary unique style. In the end, Monarch's chatty bar crowd was getting louder and louder and it felt like it was part of the sound experience.

Too bad their debut record was not available this evening; I guess they could have sold a few of them. But I think everyone in the audience went home very satisfied, with or without Brick Mask. I did.

Quick Review: Evangelista and B/B/S

This already was a while ago. I didn't have the chance to write something before but still want to mention it because it was a memorable show.

Berghain Kantine wasn't nearly as filled as I imagined when Aidan Baker, whom we already wrote about numerous times, started the evening with his newest three piece band project B/B/S. With this two guitars and a drummer line up, they played the sort of music you'd expect to hear from him. Epic postrock songs that slowly built up, got noisier and louder and then slowly faded out. He surely knows what he's doing and if you're into postrock or postmetal in any way, you'll like what he does. The live drummer added some interesting  "real band" experience to the whole thing and definitely freshened it up a little..

Next up were Evangelista. Now I already saw Carla Bozulich perform twice this year (plus once last year opening for Thurston Moore). One time collaborating with Okkyung Lee on cello and Morten J. Olsen on drums/percussions at Ausland and the other time together with Jhno and Aidan Baker at bei Roy. Both times were totally different experiences but also totally great in their ways, so I was sort of sure this won't disappoint me either.

Playing with her full band again sounded and felt totally different than the concerts I saw before and it was pretty awesome! Carla was singing, shouting, preaching, joking and the show was musically very intense. For a couple of songs they borrowed the drummer from B/B/S which made the whole thing even better, I wished he could have played the whole set with them. But nonetheless the four piece band played a truly great set of dark and mesmerizing music, somewhere between postrock, folk elements and experimental ambient sounds. I left happy and hope they'll be back sometime soon.

Review: Father Murphy and Mysticats

Okay, sometimes when a venue announces a secret surprise act and for some reason they can't tell you who it is, you should go anyway. Father Murphy alone would have been well worth the visit to bei Roy yesterday, but having Carla Bozulich (Evangelista), Jhno and Aidan Baker (Nadja) playing as support trio made it even better...

Unfortunately, due to technical problems, the first support act of the evening couldn't play. Sometimes it obviously sucks to be dependent on a hard drive to be able to play your music.

Anyway Mysticats, the "top secret super surprise project" started the evening. I had no idea what they were going to do, but having seen Carla Bozulich and Jhno together as support for Thurston Moore (C* wrote about that here) at Volksbühne and also Carla collaborating with some other musicians at Ausland earlier this year, I was sure this couldn't go wrong. They played a mesmerizing and very drony set of experimental and postrock influenced music. You could definitely hear Aidan Bakers influence on this and adding Carlas distinctive and intriguing voice worked very well, creating a pretty dense atmosphere. They collaborated live for the first time ever but seemed to have a deep musical understanding for each other and their different musical backgrounds and styles added up so nicely. I'm glad to have witnessed this.

Next on were Father Murphy whom I already was looking forward to see again. I already saw them twice, so this was nothing totally new for me. But nonetheless I was excited to hear them perform material of their newest record, which just came out pretty recently. They've been on a US tour with Xiu Xiu and Dirty Beaches and also released a split 7" with Xiu Xiu lately. So this italian band is finally getting a bit more attention and they totally deserve it! 

They're getting somehow more accessible musically but that does in no way mean they're getting worse. Quite the contrary. I had the feeling that they got better and better over the time. They play together more harmonically and they sound way more mature. It seems that they've become a totally consistent entity in which every member complements one another. Their deep and sometimes sacral sounding vocals together with a very incisive guitar add up perfectly with the processed synths and drums and create a dark and intense atmosphere. It's really hard to compare their music to other bands because over the years of their existence, they created a pretty unique sound and style. Also they seriously are one of the most unpretentious, friendly and nicest bands I've ever met. I hope they'll be back soon and I'm looking forward to see what they do in the future.

Oh and by the way, you can listen to their newest record in it's entity on their bandcamp page.