Immediately as we enter the hip boho surroundings of Wharf Chambers we’re asking ourselves why we’ve not been here before, this place is seriously cool and not a crowd killer in sight!
Kicking off tonight we have the wonderful Ekhidna who shares the talented and wonderfully leftfield singer, Ais with Sang Froid. Blissful electronica floats on breezy beautiful vocals with echoes of Bjork, Myrkyr and Cocteau Twins intermingling with twinkling synths, found sounds, deep analogue bass and looped vocal harmonies. It’s a lovely surprise that we could talk about all night to be honest, but for now, onwards!
Next up is new Leeds band LD Moses who bring their distinctly post punk take on moody melodic rock. There’s a who’s who of post punk influences at play here, we won’t start naming names or this review would just be a long list of 80s bands. The heavily reverberated gothic guitar tone drifts in and out, switching from minor to major and, in Leeds especially, is right at home. Everything here is doused in melancholy and charmingly so. There is a pounding rhythm section here powering LD Moses with a generous nod to Killing Joke, where the backbeat allows the guitars to wander whilst always bringing them back home. This is definitely a band that deserves repeated listens when further recorded material arrives, quite sublime!
Peach have been something of a buzz band since their self-titled album released last year announced their arrival. The Bristolians have definitely turned heads so let’s see this in its natural habitat, live and direct. Opening with ‘Dread’ and let us get something straight, Peach do not mess about live! Ellie is amazing, her delivery soaked in drawn out disdain and attitude and that guitar tone is the grimiest, in all the best ways, with a baritone guitar taking over bass duties to create a swamp beast of an attack! Ellie’s vibrato is quite incredible mirroring the frenetic discordant guitar play in a truly feral way. This band is utterly infectious. In their biography, Peach just say that they’re noise rock, desert rock and grunge but there’s so many layers to their sound and so much drama and energy. Just when you think they can’t rock any harder, out comes a cowbell on ‘Bad Touch’ and Ellie drives that point right home! Next up she’s taking the acapella intro to a brand-new track ‘State Of That’, executing it pitch perfect with only rimshot drums playing. This track bristles with Nirvana at peak thrash out. Ellie has the most incredible range too, falsetto highs and jazzy flourishes one minute then wailing like Janis Joplin the next, she’s a true talent.
If Peach isn’t huge in a year there’s something seriously wrong, don’t mistake this for gushing, go see for yourself! Just like that, we’re at our last song of the night, the brilliant ‘Settle Down’, with a deep sense that this is pulling back the slingshot to blast us all the way home. The pedal gets stomped and indeed Peach nails us to the back wall as they straight up wail, literally in Ellie’s case right into our favourite bands playlist.
Review & Photos By George Miller – https://linktr.ee/601music
Ekhidna
LD Moses
Peach
