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A healthy crowd was already taking advantage of the spoils on offer when I arrived, and I was once again unfortunate enough to miss out on the funky delights of Zephyr Timbre (I promise I'll see you one day guys!). Nonetheless DJ Fluent JB was spinning a fine selection which tempted a few punters onto the dancefloor, and by the time The Visitors hit the stage the vibes were definitely happening.
I'm not sure what went wrong when I saw The Visitors at Market Day, but tonight it was like a completely different band had taken the stage. Maybe it was the presence of guitarist Shannon Caroll or Tulipan vocalist Jackie Marshall second song in, but the energy and dynamics that were lacking a couple of weeks ago seemed to have returned with re-enforcements. Bassplayer and frontman Tony Potter was cranking out some delightfully funky basslines that were just screaming for someone to give them the filtered-disco treatment, and when their last track powered along on a riff suspiciously reminiscent of "The 39 Lashes" from Jesus Christ Superstar, I was happily converted to The Visitors' cause.
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The Bird, however, were already preaching to the converted - just the thought of seeing these guys crank out the beats is enough to work this hack into a lather every time. Since witnessing them for the first time amid the hippies and hay bales of the Chai Tent at the Woodford Folk Festival nearly two years ago, they've consistently blown me away with their sheer primal power and inventive approach to live techno. The last couple of shows I've seen them put in have left me wondering whether the magic was still there, but tonight they left no doubt - the cult of The Bird is still going strong, and their following is only going to get bigger if they keep putting in performances like this. |
| Keyboard whiz Simon Durrington and breakbeat machine Ben Walsh (the human equivalent of Fruity Loops on copious amounts of really intense LSD) do more than just thumb their noses at the Superstar DJ mentality - they show that the fist-pumping, button-pushing techno stereotype is not the way it has to be. Free from the constraints of sequencers and samplers, The Bird take trance-inducing synth rifs and ambient keyboard drones, mix in a constantly shifting bed of drum n bass and tribal rhythms, and go on an exploration of some of the darker regions of electronica.
If Simon's keyboards are the voice of The Bird and Ben's beats are the heart, than surely tabla master Bobby Singh is the soul. His presence always lifts the main duo (not to mention the crowd) to new levels, and as soon as he joins them on stage tonight The Zoo threatens to explode. The new dub influenced track is just a warm up - their classic signature tune "Magid Kahn" upped the ante in a serious way as always. But it is tonight's closing track "Lei Keung" (?) which best encapsulates what The Bird are about. Squelchy synth riffs melt in and out of eachother, rhythms and tempos change seemingly at will, and the middle break sees Simon abandon the keyboards and join the others in a percussion frenzy which could seemingly go on forever. And most of us there wished it had..... ~Kris Swales~
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