Doldrums – Live @ Electrowerkz
aaamusic | On 27, May 2015
Wednesday 20th May, London
Last night Electrowerkz in Angel played host to a night of a very strong marriage of post-rock and electronica, showcasing, in a way, the point in currently reached in the artistic western music canon; an absorbing array of fusions with forward thinking balances between sound and songwriting.
Doldrums’ headline set was built up to through two fantastically matched and unique performances provided by Bunki and Puma Rose. The former deliver something of a progressive and trance-like set flavoured potently with electronica. The duo experiment with minimalism in a forward-thinking manger, give a pulse to the crowd which as of yet isn’t comprised of many people.
The room sees more punters by the time Puma Rosa make it to the stage. The singer is dressed in a flowing white coat that matches her top, hat and blonde hair, contrasting her presence on the stage to the band surrounding her. The visual element remained to be a point of interest as the band gradually unleashed more of their energies into movement, swaying, leaning into and shaking against the floating post-rock sounds. Even the bassist, ever the neat looking gentleman, started grooving hard as he locked his focus into the drums.
With the atmosphere established and a growing presence of punters filling the room, Doldrums walk through the crowd and onto the stage to begin what is a reverberating drive through moderately paced tunes fronted by the androgynously voiced Airick Woodhead. The set flows through songs with relative ease, despite the appearances of some technical difficulties which seemed to slow down a moment of the show as the drummer made the bold decision to nip off stage to presumably communicate with the sound man with no chances of misunderstanding being risked. It all seemed to work though as the singer worked with the stall with an endearing confidence, not seeming all too phased by the occurrence. Before you knew it, the drummer was back in the saddle and Doldrums kicked back into groove, the sound never having ceased to emanate anyway.
They drop into ‘HOTFOOT’; the verses beckon a likeness to Radiohead’s Amnesiac and King of Limbs’ computerised warmth, the singing is comparable to a mixture of Hookworms and the Pixies and every so often an industrial pounding takes place, adding a tremendous vigour to the song. With all the upbeat rhythms, the fusing of live drum kit and electronic percussion and the jolting movements of the band, especially Airick, makes for an aerobic set that encourages a lot of dancing for what is still a small crowd (criminally small if you ask me).
Nearing the end, they segue into ‘Loops’, further propelling the dance moves of the mostly youthful onlookers. During the verses while Airick’s charming vocal melody nomadically wanders over as the song delves into its mind-altering chorus in which one key drips deep into another and is then pulled back up again. For the last song we were given a choice of whether it would be a fast or slow one. The audience chose fast, and I honestly wished that we could have had at least a little bit of both (or all of both, in order of slow, followed by fast).
Throughout the night, the progression of flashing lights and injected-synthetic-smoke complimented the dance enthused musical happenings and transfixed my mind with euphoria and casting a gleeful smile on my mind’s face. Personally, I think that Doldrums deserve to play to more people here. It could easily be imagined how great this set would have worked if it had been played at a late night slot at any legitimate festival. UK audiences may not yet realise the fun to be had with Doldrums, all the while receiving a large dose of musical depth. Hopefully it doesn’t take too much longer for us to collectively come around.
