The Field – The Luminaire, London – 17/11/09
4/5
By: Tim Dellow
It was with great trepidation to which I attended this evening. Over the course of his two exceptional albums Axel Willner has created the kind of transformative recordings which seem to create for themselves a distinct environment, an entire other space within the listener’s mind.
The intimacy of such an experience, one could assume, would have the potential to transform into a euphoric live happening in a club setting through a huge system, with mind lubrication enhancing that mournful sense of soulful beauty that all the best electronic music has at its core. However, for this tour Axel has made the bold decision to play in “Rock” venues with a band line up that involves a consistent bassist, drummer and occasional singer/guitarist/sampler.
This interpretation (dare I suggest translation?) was thankfully an almost entirely successful exercise.
The drummer (not John Stainer from Battles who played on the last record) was exceptional in driving forward the music – forging off beat rallies of personal interpretation that expounded upon paths not taken in the source material. The bassist largely sacrificed his own flourishes to serve as the underpinning of the entire endeavour – and should be lauded entirely for this devotion and service to the overall music, whilst the multi-instrumentalist, aside from an awkward vocal performance during their dramatic cover of ‘Everybody’s Got To Learn Sometime’ was texturally complimentary to Axel’s own work.
Collectively, The Field brought an almost Kraut like approach to things – accentuating the climaxes and really pushing on the delivery, whilst at the same time maintaining the intricacies and subtleties of the music.
Less effective was some of the older material which seemed less band centric, a little more dated in its construction and plug-ins, although its brasher Ibiza euphoria enlivened the crowed which was, for such a cool looking group, surprisingly receptive and inclusive. Any misgivings we’re swiftly deployed though with stand out ‘Over The Ice’ scaling the peaks of the best of Mogwai’s climaxes in a refreshing, surprisingly unpredictable fashion. The almost Space-Rock closer catapults the audience into the cool night air, headphones back on Yesterday and Today recreating new worlds and possibilities in the London Transport network.
Artists in this article: The Field
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