TOUNDRA / SCUMBAG FAMILIAR / RIGHT HAND LEFT HAND | LIVE REVIEW
Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff, Wed 18 Feb
First up tonight are Right Hand, Left Hand, featuring Rhodri Viney, long a member of various experimental groups of south Wales. The band’s music revolves around the two members who constantly shift from guitar to drums and back again. The layered guitar samples build into complex structures that are almost mathematical in form. “It’s like Mike Oldfield, but with technology,” confides my accompanying friend at one point. His perspicacity demands that I write this down and use it in my review.
After a spot of drama with missing instruments, or somesuch, Scumbag Familiar come to the stage. In a somewhat similar vein to the opening band, the two members use samplers and loop pedals to create, intricate, threaded lines, although, thrillingly, Scumbag Familiar also play some of their samples backwards. My notes for this one include the phrase “Animal Collective(?)”, so I’ll assume that means I enjoyed it.
Toundra are a Spanish post-rock group who formed in Madrid in 2007. They’ve just released their fourth album, the numerically accurate if less than imaginatively titled IV. The wholly instrumental album is apparently about a fox who flees a fire, and the ekphrasic structure does give you something of a structure to hang on to as the band play.
The band follows the normal post-rock convention of starting off quietly and getting louder – that’s pretty much the textbook definition of what post-rock is. It’s also difficult to write too much else about it. There’s none of the knotty complexity of, say, early Battles records, but also, thankfully, none of the pomposity that seems to go hand-in-hand with prog (and let’s not kid ourselves here: post-rock is just prog in a slightly less flashy outfit).
There’s a sculptural quality to this music, not just in its architectural qualities, but also the marble coldness which permeates the sound. This is music which can be admired, but which is difficult to love.
words DAVID GRIFFITHS
