About last night

[hirez]

For what seems like an awfully long time, I've been listening to a variety of grim (and slightly less so) CDs and doing my best to avoid phrases like 'passionate bass' (and indeed 'bass chores'), 'driving beat' or 'dear christ will you all fuck off back to your jobs in fast-food outlets and never let the notion of musical fame ever bother you again'. Instead I've rambled on about 'lurching mobs', 'demonic possession', 'malfunctioning synths' and 'cider guzzling tramp' in a style I consider to be more or less randomly entertaining for the reader and somewhat band-antagonistic.

So I think last night was a strangely fitting end to all of that. No more can be written in that style and, crucially, no more bands can be written about in that style.

James Ray and the Startling Performance put an absolute end to it. As, I think, they'd put the notion in my head in the first place, it was appropriate.

The first time I viewed James Ray was at Whitby some number of years ago. I think it remains one of my favourite gigs because it was exactly the kind of chattering 303 and noise-wall guitar that I imagined would work rather well together. Like any other sensible sort, I was rather keen to listen to more of the same, which was unfortunate since the band imploded shortly thereafter.

The supports were... Some blokes in skinny ties that were making the same sort of generic noise with Bowie-influenced mic-lurching that I've watched support bands do since 1985. It was very 1985, in fact. No-one else here will remember 'Esprit de corps', but it would seem that at least one band in Bristol does. Next up were some jolly nice sorts who probably shop at M&S and began with some atonal synth-skronk accompanied by rhythmless sax, backwards guitar and distracted mumbling. An excellent start I'm sure you'll agree. However, a Roxette-remix dance/shuffle beat arrived on the DAT and it all went a bit polite shoegaze/MBV. I'm sure the time is probably right for the 1990 revival, but if you're going to do that, could you at least try to make it a little more Swervedriver and a little less coffeetable? I cannot say if I would purchase an album. Perhaps I will listen to some mp3s when my ears recover? Yes.

And then. A surly-looking mob took the stage. The backing was the sound of malfunctioning synths being beaten with a broken microphone stand by a bloke who looked like an old testament prophet without honour in his own land. Who'd had a couple of scoops and therefore lurched and staggered about the stage, fell over and delivered songs in the prone position while flailing the microphone stand about 'til it broke.

It was... Mesmerising. Though sounded quite horrible to begin with. As if several tunes were fighting it out... I guess if there was going to be a Fall for the black-clad, then this would be it. Then, about halfway through, something happened. Were it a car (obviously some V8 powered monster avec pink bottle) one might imagine that it had warmed up enough to run right and the pilot had found a straight bit of horizon to aim at. In the venue, it sounded like they'd all decided to play the same tune in the manner of a Tackhead mostly influenced by The Stooges, VU and the Porton Down LSD experiments.

The thing is, I adore tripped-out, trance-like fuzz guitar about as much as I like a howling 303 and pre-breakdown techno drum crescendos. Bolt the two together wrong and it sounds like Republica and/or any number of half-rubbish g*th-karaoke chancers that I've been forced to listen to in the last yea-many years. Get it right, and... It'll sound like James Ray.

So that's the very end of it. I'm off to listen to humppa and jazz and dub and electrofunk and whatever the hell else. Just not g*th/INDUSTRAIL(tm). There's no more point. Probably.

Edit/Linkage: http://www.4080peru.co.uk/ / http://thejamesray.co.uk/
Downloadable everything.

Comments

[nemesis-to-go.livejournal.com]

James Ray's Gangwar are unquestionably one of the finest live acts in the known universe when they hit that groove.

And if James Ray himself starts doing his 'I've gone to a special place inside my head and I don't quite know if I'm ever coming back' thing on top of it all...well. That's when the planets shift from their orbits and reality wobbles for us all.

In short, great stuff.

James Ray's Gangwar are also, it must be said, one of the most capricious and frustrating bands in the known universe. You never quite know if they'll show up for the gig at all, or if James Ray will throw a freaker at the last minute and decide not to play. And then, when he does get on stage, you're never quite sure if he's going to stick around for the full set, or if he's going to fall off the stage a few songs in due to the influence of pre-gig refreshments.

I always said that if Gangwar had kept plugging away after the release of 'Psychodalek' instead of doing just a handful of gigs and then splitting up, they coulda bin real contenders by now.

If the band are now back in full-on action, and their current activity isn't just a temporary escapade for shits and giggles, I shall be most pleased. Chuffed, even.

At any rate, I'm looking forward to see Gangwar take on the Wave Gotik Treffen in a few months. James Ray in Leipzig - I think the phrase I'm looking for here is 'added value'.

[hirez.livejournal.com]

WGT?
[FX: Webbage]

Good Lord. So last night must have been a warm-up.

It's either going to be cosmic or the sort of gig where you slope off quickly when the band are looking the other way, so as to save embarassment.

I wish I'd bothered the good Mr. Ray now. Though I've no idea what I'd say. Probably 'You've spoiled the whole of g*th/INDUSTRAIL(tm) for me since I saw you at Whitby. I can't thank you enough.'

[zoo-music-girl.livejournal.com]

The Fall aren't for the black clad too?

Sounds awesome. I shall watch out for London dates. I don't think I saw them at Whitby, although I was there that year.

[hirez.livejournal.com]

They are, but You Know What I Mean.

IIRC, many people hated the Whitby performance because 'the synths were too loud and it was techno'. I think this was the day I began mithering about 'cloth-eared g*thic bastards'.

Awesome. Yes. Very much in the line of 'Oh shit they're going to down tools in a second, drive over the bar and lob bottles at the (thin on the ground, but then Bristol g*ths don't cate for live music by and large) audience.

[girfan.livejournal.com]

According to matthewnorth on my LJ: www.myheartland.co.uk

No London dates, just Belgium and WGT, but keep checking.

[zoo-music-girl.livejournal.com]

There'a a *huge* amount of information on those pages! I'm subscribed to about three million ticket agency mailing lists so I should spot it that way. I don't think I have time to trawl through that site on a regular basis!

Thanks though. :)

[girfan.livejournal.com]

The ironic thing was that both of the people who told me about the Bristol gig unded up not going! Their loss.

I was thinking about you, naturalbornkaos and glitchdrei whilst the gig was happening and how much the 3 of you would be digging it.

[markeris.livejournal.com]

I am continually thwarted in my efforts to see Mr. Ray. Though I did see him doing his whitenoise poetry and projection thing a while back. Which was much more my thing than the rest of the audiences thing, but not a particularly inspired example of the form. I have given up on any notion of him doing his gonzoid acid biker rock with a band thing malarkey at any point where I will observe it however.

[hirez.livejournal.com]

See newly added links.

[amanda-pink.livejournal.com]

I'm sold!!! I'll fire up Soulseek and gank the lot when I get home tonight.

One band who've always mesmerized me with their 303/ambient warblings vs guitars is System7. Psy trance for the intelligent ;)

[echo-echo.livejournal.com]

Huh? the whole lot appears to be on that website already.

[echo-echo.livejournal.com]

Nah. Doesn't work for me. The 242 meets Frankie Goes to Hollywood meets Sisters early material sounds fairly interesting, but when they go all acid trance, ugh. It just does not work for my ears. It sounds like a pale pre-echo of things that were yet to come.

Definately one of those things that I think should be experienced live. What would be chest rattling primal throb doesn't really have the same viscera when played at polite volume at home.

[hirez.livejournal.com]

Live. Yes.

The top-left downloads sound an awful lot like Martini Ranch.

[steer.livejournal.com]

I think you've got to listen to some of it while repeating to yourself "in the context of the time". Dios Esta De Nuestro Lado was written when most people's idea of electronic music was getting stoned and listening to "Little Fluffy Clouds" over and again. When I first heard Third Generation and Psychodalek they were as brutal sounding in their way as anything around. But I know what you mean about "a pre-echo of things that were yet to come". Psychodalek and even more The MK Ultra period stuff pulls in a trance influence and I didn't know of anyone who was doing that and putting it with a goth kind of sound at that time. At that time most people I knew in the goth scene saw that as about as far to selling out as you could possibly go. Ach then, maybe there were lots of bands doing that but I wasn't aware of them.

The changes in style of the various incarnations make it a bit hard to classify. The Performance album "A New Kind of Assassin" (first CD I ever bought -- I didn't own a CD player but I knew I'd be unlikely to find it again) was great but in a different quieter and more reflective way.

I don't know, I just reckon that if at some point he'd settled down to play a few live shows so fans got used to the "hits" he'd be really well known by now. However, his way is to continually spit up, reform and reinvent his sound.

Still, the 25 men set in Leeds last year really was an amazing experience. Initially I was thinking "come on, play some classics" but there was a kind of slow insistence to it that really built up -- at an event where most of the crowd was really there for a bucket of nostalgia with a side helping of same-old same-old.

[maluse.livejournal.com]

<fx>the happy slurping of wget</fx>

How odd... as I read your post I realised that this flier



was sitting on the top of a pile of old papers and random crud in the computer room I'm currently in the business of trying to tidy... Google says Psychodalek was 1996. Gosh. That would certainly explain why my Psychodalek t-shirt is a tad tattered...

Fights urge to put on comfy slippers and reminisce and bounces to fresh downloads instead.

[nemesis-to-go.livejournal.com]

Ah, those heady lo-tech days when you could still get away with making flyers out of scissors, Pritt, and Letraset.

I see I even tried to add the missing apostrophe to the band name - it really should be James Ray's Gangwar, not James Rays Gangwar.

(Unless you're the Whitby Gothic Weekend, of course, in which case it's James Ray Gangwar and nobody will ever be able to tell you different!)

I recall I always had to book James Ray at the Underworld. He refused to play the Borderline on the grounds that 'There aren't enough strobes'.

[kathbad]

James Ray @ Whitby was (I think) my second excursion to the WGW.

I thought that they were amazing - and was already a fan (due to ex's fondness for them). Glad to hear that the magic is back!

[steer.livejournal.com]

Hah... I've got a signed Gangwar poster sitting just below the monitor. I really should do something with it. I'm not one for signed merchandise but I was drinking with a friend who plays guitar for one of the Gangwar incarnations and he insisted on giving it to me since I am a fan. Great stuff.