Rangleklods

My review of RangleKlods' concert at Vega last Friday. The original article can be found here :

http://www.cphpost.dk/inout/reviews/concert-review-meet-denmarks-home-grown-joy-division-rangleklods

Or in tomorrow's version of the physical copy of The Copenhagen Post

Concert Review | Meet Denmark's home-grown Joy Division, Rangleklods

Allan Mutuku-Kortbæk

March 13, 2012 - 11:30

**** (4 stars out of 6); March 9 at Lille Vega

Rangleklods's debut album Beekeeper is out this week

If Friday's performance was anything to go by, it is more than safe to assume that Danish electro experimentalist Rangleklods (aka Esben Andersen) may well become something of a household name in the not too distant future. The Berlin-based musician fired things up at a crammed Lille Vega with snippets of his upcoming debut album Beekeeper - which is due to drop this week- combined with older material off the 2011 EPHome as well as other single releases.

Rangleklods stepped onto the scene to an anticipatory crowd who didn't fully let themselves go during the concert, but who seemed to enjoy themselves nonetheless. The light show and the acoustics were some of the best I have seen at Vega - complimenting the experimental, Joy Division- esque electronic sounds of the seemingly unstoppable Rangleklods, who performed behind a smoky haze of flashes and lightning-like shards that accentuated the hissing hi-hats and heavy bass lines of his music.

This time round, Andersen was accompanied by a guitarist who added a refreshingly innovative touch to his music, which was no more evident than during the 'Young And Dumb' tune, which features a hallucinatory, psychedelic electronic guitar sequence. At some points during the show, however, this mysterious guitarist seemed to be more of a spectator than part of the actual process - although when she did play, she played with enthusiasm and panache that glossed this over.

The new album is definitely a lot more rich in pop influences than their previous releases, which arguably makes it a more accessible work by virtue of it appealing to a broader audience. This notwithstanding Beekeeper does elicit a more musically mature sound that preserves the consistent organic sounds Andersen experiments with, whilst infusing more vocal renditions into the process. The heavy bass lines and pronounced synth stabs that constitute the rather distinct sound  people have come to associated with the band with are consistent and prevalent throughout the album, and found room to roam on Friday thanks to live-setup that allowed Rangleklods to inject a great deal of spontaneity and improvisation to his studio productions.

And while musically the show definitely had a lot going for it, the show did get a tad monotonous at times and the audience didn't really well and truly let themselves go. This notwithstanding, Rangleklods music can only get better with time. He is definitely an artist to watch out for this year.

At War With The Mystics

At war with the mystics

My heart flutters

A distant movement

Through time, space and the ether beyond

For I have dreamed and I have decayed

And my path rolls infinitely on

Beyond this eternity and the next

Or so the whispering shadows tell me

The sun, the cloud and the wind are my whims

My fluttering dreams my decaying heart

I leave this all behind

To the stage of the world,

The boulevard of dispersed expectations,

Cold, fleeting sorrows and hopeful tomorrows

To the sights of today's generation and yesterday's rookies

At war with the mystics

At one with the blueness of the transient sky  

Eternity

Eternity is now, it is yesterday it is tomorrow, it is everything and everywhere. We speak of eternity as if it's some state of sensationalised paradise that we come to after life in the interpretation that we can relate to it, i.e. within the frame of the present time, comes to a so-called end. For some reason, the notion of eternity is supposed to enthrall and fascinate us but the truth is that if you are looking for eternity you may as well look into a mirror because it's staring right back at you. Eternity is now and since the present is all we really have in this chronotopic dance we call life, it may be apt for mankind to stop dreaming about what tomorrow will bring and start living today, here and now, in eternity

Eternity, eternity I find you so vague
so bourgeoisie so boring
I seek you still as the sunflower seeks light
A passenger aboard your cyclical pilgrimage
A stranger in your passing breeze
Visceral eternity, dancing eternity
I am eternity and this is life
As good as bad, as fleeting or as everlasting as ever

Not Van Nor Jim, The Name is James Morrison

original article available at : http://cphpost.dk/inout/reviews/concert-review-not-van-nor-jim-name-james-morrison. (or in the physical version of the paper) 

Concert Review | Not Van nor Jim, the name is James Morrison

Allan Mutuku-Kortbæk

March 7, 2012 - 14:42

***** (5 stars out of 6); March 6 at Store Vega

Morrison has garnered comparisons to Stevie Wonder, but at Vega he proved he has his own signature style (Photo: Rasmus B.S. Hansen / www.terranaut.dk)

When James Morrison first rose to critical acclaim in 2006, many must have wondered how a man of such talent had not been discovered earlier. When he played at a sold-out Store Vega last night, the crowd must have been flummoxed by what exactly they had just witnessed. At his best, the Rugby-born musician was as soulful a voice as any you're likely to hear and even at his worst, he was teetering on the edge of sheer musical brilliance.

Morrison stepped onto the scene along with a sizeable backing band and proceeded to quench the crowd's thirst with the prolific ‘Beautiful Life’, a well-placed opener that set the standard for the night. After a slowish start that entranced more than it entertained, signature track ‘I Won't Let You Go’ took the concert to a whole new level five songs in, as Morrison's hoarse yet soulful falsetto-inclined voice got the license to roam from low to high that it had been waiting for.

Fans and critics alike have hailed the lively singer's style as being reminiscent to Stevie Wonder, albeit infused with elements of confessional lyrical singer/songwriter traits, an alternating pattern that was consistent throughout last night's show.  

Fluctuating between emotive, if not borderline melancholic. numbers juxtaposed alongside more soul-crammed tunes, Morrison and co didn't take a misstep during their concert and seemed to be enjoying themselves more and more as time went by. An acoustic performance of ‘Right By Your Side’ was the highlight of it all, as Morrison's vocals thundered through Vega unimpaired by any instrumentation whatsoever, bar a few well-placed electric guitar strums.  This numbed the mood and created an overwhelming sense of subtlety that was promptly left short-lived by a crescendo of upbeat tunes towards the end, such as the well-known ‘You Give Me Something’ and ‘Wonderful World’, both of which topped the charts back in 2007 and did their bit to send the crowd home with smiles on their faces.

It is rare to see a musician that's graced with so much natural talent, rarer still to see one who is as genuinely humble about things as Morrison. Six years after being catapulted into the limelight, he's still the shy lad from the West Midlands whose hoarse voice stands apart from any of his contemporaries.

Nothingness

Back to the primordial
To the basal the banal, the bestial
From whence you came
To the voids of nothingness
The stratosphere of silence
Where no winds blow
Where no dreams stir
No wings flap
Back to the primordial
Where there are no truths
Just light, darkness and the space between

Dionysian Rites

Justice Served

Here's a copy of my article on Justice's seismic show in Copenhagen last week. The original article can be found on the paper's In & Out section from the 3rd of March or in the physical copy out tomorrow.

http://cphpost.dk/inout/reviews/concert-review-justice-served

Justice Served

**** (4 stars out of 6); March 1 at Falconer Salen

The French duo put on a good show but didn't quite manage to live up to their legendary reputation

When word got out last year that France's wild boys of all things electro, Justice, would be playing at Falconer Salen in March, tickets for the show sold out almost immediately. Justice’s sizeable global following is in itself a marvel, and their live show has evolved into a masterpiece that breaks  borders and  pushes the limits of what live entertainment can do to a partisan crowd.

 

Falconer Salen was as crammed as it possibly could have been long before Justice were anywhere near the stage, teeming with an audience of predominantly indie kids and beat-hungry hipsters. Xavier de Rosnay and Gaspard Augé took to the stage amidst high pitched whistles, shrieks and claps, opening their set with the epic, adrenaline-triggering ‘Genesis’, much to the delight of the excited crowd, who were ecstatic from the word go.

 

Augé  and Rosney lived up to their hype — at least to start off with, firing a series of creative mashups of tracks off their two album releases that intertwined with each other in a manner that left no room for breaks from the full-on frenzy their music inspired.

Midway through the show and it was evident that the initial energy was losing its inertia. Justice responded by slamming chunky dance floor destroyers such as ‘Phantom Pt II’ and the indie-straddling ‘We Are Your Friends’, which has steadily evolved into something of an anthem for every Justice fan out there.  At one point, the entire audience was crouched down facing the giant illuminated cross from behind which Justice worked their magic. The last time I've seen the audience bow in such fashion was at Mike Skinner's  (The Streets) concert at Roskilde in 2008, a testament of what Justice achieved when they were at their indomitable best. Several euphoric moments later and feet were in the air, T-shirts were flung haphazardly here and there and sweat beads were dripping down everyone's faces.

 

While Justice were at times brilliant, at other times many earnest fans would no doubt have felt that there was an element or two missing to fully live up to the ravey, party-crazed pair’s reputation. All in though, no one left Falconer Salen unsatisfied, which is always a good sign.