This event is a much-anticipated trip to the outer reaches courtesy of two of the best post-rock and metal acts this fair isle has to offer; as summer approaches, so does the amount of these types of gigs seemingly to prime us for the upcoming ArcTanGent and Portals festivals and taking up where Strange Forms left us a few weeks ago in precisely the same venue.
Lys Morke
It’s an early start as Lys Morke ushers us in on a brief but atmosphere setting set of lush but abrasive set of live percussion augmented electronica and techno for fans of early Warp records and vocally sometimes reminiscent of the frosty war cries of Heilung. A very intriguing and unexpected opener that serves as a lovely abstract warm up for the sonic waves that are about to crash over us.
Bossk
Bossk have a guest intro from Maybeshewill’s keyboard player Matthew Daly taking the lead before the band appear onstage for, ‘The Reverie’, it’s an enchanted start to a magical evening. As Bossk tear into the titanic ‘Menhir’, It’s hard not to visualise waves crashing against rocky shorelines and fishermen in grave danger when listening to Bossk, such is the elemental powerful nature of their music, their vocalist Simon Wright has a voice like something from the heavens just sealed your doom. But at the same time there is a rich beauty to the band that is easily as vulnerable as anything you’ll hear from the likes of Sigur Ros on the beautiful ‘Kobe’. This once again is the huge power of contrast. Bossk deal in colour as much as they deal in sound and a Bossk show is a complete sensory experience, as soon as you mellow out and groove, they turn on a sixpence and hit you with full force of a full herd of Mastodon. Texturally there’s something so pleasing at play and even at their heaviest it’s never a harsh or uncomfortable listen (or maybe we’ve built a tolerance) either way the warm tones emanating from the amplifiers are making us feel very fuzzy and happy albeit with our horns raised high as they once again turn, this into the best doom band you’ve ever heard. Shape shifting and mutating but always sounding like Bossk and utter geniuses for it as they pound out ‘Atom Smasher’ on one of the best stoner grooves we’ve heard this side of Kyuss, our jaws hit the floor and the entire venue is pulling screw faces, then just like that, we’re off to outer space again for a closing ‘Lira’. Phenomenal, unpredictable and wholly incredible.
Maybeshewill
Like a powder paint explosion Maybeshewill erupt in fully romantic style with ‘Take This To Heart’ and in three songs they unreservedly woo this audience, this is the most beautiful sound to come out of overdriven guitars as they launch into ‘Red Paper Lanterns’. After all of that they introduce a track that was written about the Paris Hilton sex tape and all of that beauty shifts into something far dirtier although even this turns into a transcendental experience as keyboards twinkle overhead and lead guitar soars into orbit. Because, by their own admission, they’re an impatient band by nature these tracks rarely exceed more than five minutes in length and you’re given very short (for this kind of music) bursts of glorious cinematic sound in full technicolor it’s like being happy slapped with a bunch of flowers. ‘Seraphim’ glides and soars segueing into ‘Accolades’ and ‘In Amber’ and when the synths go into full twinkling midnight wonderland mode it really is a dreamlike experience. It really is the inclusion of the keyboards here that brings the cinematic references as the melodies are so full of drama and emotion.
The band are the heft and force that propels this entire sound forward with the keys taking the role of lead in the absence of a singer. We don’t know why being instrumental is seen as so unusual when some of the greatest music we’ve heard this year has been fully instrumental and speaking way more and more eloquently without words. Dedicating their last tune to local PR hero Si Glacken was a lovely touch, you don’t hear that often, but Maybeshewill are definitely something you don’t hear often and it’s a total treat when nights like this come around. Just when we thought we had this figured out, Maybeshewill bow out on a rapturous sing-along moment in ‘He Films The Clouds 2’, it’s sampled so still instrumental…kind of, but the crowd knows all the words and sings it back joyfully. That’s the vibe we leave with, a joyful life affirming night of many textures and a full palette of colours.
Review & Photos By George Miller
https://linktr.ee/601music
Lys Morke
Bossk
Maybeshewill
