aaamusic | On 23, Oct 2011

London, 15th October

First things first, I think everyone should go to The Finsbury, if only for the ambience: old-fashioned wallpaper, a ceiling covered in cult film posters, and even a well-stocked bookshelf to peruse make it a rather nice pub venue, and to cap it off the fortnightly Young Twisted & Black club night has shown itself to be a great showcase of darkly-inclined rock music.

 

This night featured two bands: firstly the straightforwards gloomy rock n roll of The Partly Faithful, fronted by Ed Tuke formerly of Screaming Banshee Aircrew, and I have to say that this act, although still feeling like they haven’t quite got their live gig tweaked and tightened, put on a striking show, leaving out the goth fussiness but keeping the atmospherics, with a definite air of the theatrical coming from their frontman, as the rest of the band put on a solid performance that held the set together rather than it being a dimple façade. The set started off a little timid, but by the end the energy was there and ultimately proved enjoyable.

 

In comparison, The Unkindness Of Ravens were a bit more leftfield. Part dark electro, part heavy grunge, the duo threw out a performance that was perhaps hampered in visceral power due to the height of the stage removing them from the audience, but their music was rarely anything less than brilliant. Imagine The Kills, only with a bass guitar, malignant circuitry and a strobe light, and you might be part way there. Nina Wagner seemed to become an inhuman conduit for the songs, hair like a curtain over her face and movements seeming to be controlled directly by the drum machine, and Ben Raine’s bass guitar gave the music an organic unpredictability that was reassuring and yet kept the listener on their toes. Between the two of them, there was once again a sense of the set as a real theatrical statement, as they eschewed stage banter for an onslaught of songs delivered in a manner that seemed to belong to the world of Bladerunner. Sinister, with sleek yet feral electronic veins running through it. The two humans were kept in check by the backing track, but never let it overpower them. In fact, it could have possibly done with some boosting as in the face of Wagner’s powerful Bond theme via mechanic vamp vocals and Raine’s buzzsaw bass, it almost faded into insignificance instead of providing a backdrop for the music to really come into its own. New Single ‘Virus’ made a powerful appearance of course, with Wagner descending the steps to menace the crowd, a wise move given the stage’s gulf of separation between audience and artist.

Overall, despite hitches, The Unkindness Of Ravens proved they can hold an audience between two people and a laptop with their Kills-esque noir electro-grunge, and therefore are clearly an act to check out.

 

Katie H-Halinski