ALT-J / THE HORRORS / GHOSTPOET | LIVE REVIEW
Motorpoint Arena, Cardiff, Thurs 3 Dec
At last, Cardiff gets a chance to witness Alt-J in action. Having played at Green Man Festival a few years back, the undefinable alternative band with a love of bleeps, loops and harmonies has been to Wales before, but not quite reached the capital. The crowd was so receptive to Alt-J in the Motorpoint Arena, the band themselves admitted they didn’t know why they haven’t been to Cardiff more.
The same can’t be said for Ghostpoet, the first support, who fell a little flat despite the frontman’s swagger and indie-tinged trip-hop. Moody post-rock shoegazers The Horrors followed, sticking firmly to material from their three most recent albums. By completely ignoring songs from their scuzzy debut album Strange House, and instead opting for songs laden with psychedelic synths (Who Can Say, Still Life, In And Out Of Sight), they build a sturdy body of noise. The downside to this is that they plod through their set, rather than shake and hurl themselves around as they would’ve done to earlier material.
To be fair to the support bands, though, it’s all about Alt-J tonight. Even the stage lights seemed to take a huge leap in effectiveness and excitement when the Leeds four piece entered the room, hitting every beat and bleep with a flash of colour and movement. Opening with the apt Intro, a wonderful multilayered vocal-lead exercise, they rolled seamlessly into Every Other Freckle, the hit single from their 2014 release This Is All Yours.
From here in, it was all go. Something Good, with its mysteriously hypnotic sways of keyboard runs, shuffling percussion and gentle vocals, was perfectly juxtaposed with the bluesy strut of Left Hand Free. Bloodflood and Bloodflood Pt. 2 were played back to back despite being on two different albums, making obvious their previously unnoticed similitude.
Unsurprisingly, the stirring yet delicate Matilda was met with full audience singalong, as was the contrastingly pacy Dissolve Me – a colourful, multifaceted exploit that deserves to soundtrack a side-scrolling platform game. If you look at the lyrics of any of these songs, they read more like a skit from The Mighty Boosh, but when they’re put to layers of intricate sounds and punctuated vocals they become really special, like another language.
Leaving the stage with the bipolar Fitzpleasure, they then returned with Hunger Of The Pine, a haunting soundscape of synths, sprawling vocals, percussive taps and horn calls. After Warm Foothills and Taro, they play out with Breezeblocks, a real builder that echoes long after the final “please don’t go, I love you so” is reached. Some could say it’s a fitting line to end on: there was certainly a lot of love for Alt-J in the room, and it was clearly reciprocated by the band, who put every effort into performing their complex musical trickery to its fullness.
words AMY PAY photos SIMON AYRE
