Four Tet All Night Long / Abandon Silence // The Shipping Forecast /// GetIntoThis

Four Tet joined the ranks of Abandon Silence alumni with a versatile virtuoso set,Getintothis' Laurie Cheeseman pays tribute to an artist at the very top of his game.

After a whopper of a DJ set earlier this year for Abandon Silence, no-one could argue with welcoming Four Tet (aka Kieran Hebden) back for another round - something the fact the first release of tickets selling out in one hour goes to show.

Now then, this isn't an especially original point to make but it's clear how muchHebden has fallen for dance music outside of the rather more esoteric strains of electronic he produced after his stint in post-rock group Fridge over recent years. And his timing in visiting our fair city couldn't be more perfect, what with his new record dropping the same week to much critical acclaim.

Atmospherically, it's all standard Abandon Silence: total sweatbox of a room, minimal lighting and more than a few gurners drifting around. But would you have it any other way? No way. Kieran totally knows how to play the room and even manages to drop in a few guilty pleasures (with Janet Jackson being the only real misfire of the whole night).

The fact Kieran never lets up the pace also means it's easy enough to tune in as and when you want. Perfect for those less than sober souls down there to cool down (or to check out Juicy for those with a predilection for dancing to Aaliyah) and come back and not have missed a beat. Essential for a relentless five hour set, right?

For a city with ever more club nights, Abandon Silence once again proves why it's the cream of the crop when it brings in top drawer players like Four Tet.

PINS, September Girls, Sankofa / Leaf Tea Shop, Liverpool // GetIntoThis

PINS led a trident attack on an expectant Leaf Tea Shop, Getintothis' Laurie Cheeseman found he didn't mind these PINS in his eyes and ears.

In the wake of the rise and rise of post-punk auteurs like Savages and Iceage, PINShave had the tendency to be overlooked. Yet, after repeated outings, they've garnered strong support on Merseyside and following the release of their Bella Union-released debut, Girls Like Us momentum appears to be with them and anticipation is high in the city for their return.

However, before the night's main attraction, Sankofa treat the audience to their brand of grounded, bluesy psych of the kind Liverpool does so well. You know the sort; earthy yet cosmic, gruff yet shimmering, tense yet slack. They specialise in those contradictions which is what makes them stand out from this over-saturated pool of retro-revivalists.

Sankofa at Leaf Tea Shop, Liverpool

With that kind of sound you'd think it'd be hard for a band like Sankofa to stand out in Merseyside yet it is their stampeding rhythm - largely down to the rumbling bass - which keeps the whole rave up from spiralling off into infinity-loop jams.

This is especially key as so often these kinds of bands are top-dollar on record yet just a bit self-congratulatory, a bit, well, precious. Not with Sankofa. With these fine chaps it just means seamless segues, endless improvs à la the UFO Club.

However, Sankofa are in complete disconnect with the rest of the evening. WhereSankofa seem best consumed in the garden on a warm summer's eve, bothSeptember Girls and PINS rock a more monolithically industrial vibe.

In a good way of course; the total lack of posturing is refreshing absolutely, and nothing quite beats some three part harmonising, right? Considering that it'sSeptember Girls' first show in these parts, they certainly know how to work the crowd with their spiky riffs and deep bass resonating beautifully with the aforementioned harmonies.

September Girls at Leaf Tea Shop, Liverpool

Even better is that considering post-punk has been around since the year zero, it's interesting to see how this new generation of bands are incorporating the influences of time-honoured classics (Young Marble Giants anyone?) in a far more interesting context than the Rakes or Good Shoes managed.

How many mid-00s bands managed to make a song called Heartbeats sound like a jangly Sugar Kane? Precisely.

PINS at Leaf Tea Shop, Liverpool

PINS' rudimentary, clanging take on doom-punk compliments their well-chosen tour-mates perfectly; slithering, shifting and dynamic music underlined by Neu!-levels of repetition is never going to go out of style, but by jove they need to work on their lyricism.

When a band is this tight they need to match (preferably with some deep musings on death), but what they give us is some pop-lite generalisations. Essentially, they have one foot in weird and one in MoR pop, but they really need to decide where they want to take it. Basically, make it more Bella Union, please.

Having said that, no song outstays its welcome or veers too far towards atmospherics or rock'n'roll groundedness.

From this neat middle path, exemplified by Love You For Life, they play each song like a well-oiled machine, but eventually they begin to blur into one with no single song succeeding in differentiating itself from the gloom; they lack the necessary bile or saccharine sweetness to really pack the necessary punch live. That said, there's the kernel of a fine band at work, they just need to find a few more winners in their arsenal, and then maybe they'll join that aforementioned select group of auteurs truly grabbing the headlines.

Pictures by Getintothis' Nata Moraru.

Drenge, Radkey, Dirty Rivers: East Village Arts Club, Liverpool

Excitement is riding in high in Liverpool as the latest band to roll off the hype-wagon,Drenge, come to town. Are they worth the hype?

We'll have to see, but first Dirty Rivers throw their tuppence worth of noise in. Some would say it's a bit too noisy, but isn't that what you want from Liverpool's favourite dirty rock'n'roll band, or any rock'n'roll band for that matter?

Especially one whose singer's on stage bravado is your classic garage-Jagger, all yelps and backed up by some dirty-as-you-like hairy riffs and spiralling, swirling cosmic guitars.

All too often at gigs these days, there ain't no fear. Fear of being stomped on. Fear of being leapt on. The fear that anything could go down. It won't like because this is gig life in David Cameron's Britain, but still it's nice to have that rare feeling danger.

Radkey at East Village Arts Club, Liverpool

Radkey, on their first UK tour, at least project some of that fear, something you should really have garnered from their bassist Isiah's OFF! t-shirt and the frankly ridiculously amazing Bad Brains-aping beats.

But really they're just adorable. Isiah's bouncy banter is in brilliant disconnect with the music they peddle.

It certainly says something when even a band's slower moments are more frenzies and psychotic than the other two bands could produce, and typically for an old-school hardcore band there's no designated singer (how refreshing), leaving Isiah free to yelp and provide the histrionics all he likes. All of this leaves everyone asking, how canDrenge top that?

Drenge at East Village Arts Club, Liverpool

Initially, the machine gun drums, unintelligible groans and hellfire riffage blow Radkeyoutta the water. Even the un-understandable lyrics manage to pack an emotional punch, if only for Eoin's dramatic yelps and groans peppering their slender set.

Imagine if Jack White had listened to less of Kick Out The Jams and more Back In The USA, that's sort of it.

They also crib some of that old fashioned danger and surliness which comes to a head in the nights only respite in high energy hijinks; droneathons Fuck About andLet's Pretend which bring about a genuine lull damaging the carefully maintained momentum.

Still it's nice to see rock doing it's live thing properly again, and given Drenge are in their infancy we can forgive these minor missteps in a hugely entertaining evening which can be measured in the amount of liquid our bodies lost. Gallons.

Pictures by Getintothis' Tomas Adam.

Back Catalogue / 10 Bands, 10 Minutes - Blondie // The Kazimier

For those of you not familiar with 10 Bands 10 Minutes, here's the 411 - 10 bands play 10(ish) minute sets largely dedicated to a legendary artist - in this case it's Blondie. Simple as.

First on are the Isle of Wight's very own Me & My Sister, largely attired in bin-bags in their nod to Debbie Harry's eternal style. They promptly treat us to a couple of sweetly twee tracks about Britney Spears (because "all our songs are pretty much about Britney"). This is followed up by an excellent (i.e. faithful) cover of Denis, replete with some distinctive harmonies.

All of which is delivered with madcap semi-interpretive dances professing their love for all things pop star related. Well, what else would you do?

Natalie McCool at 10 Bands, 10 Minutes: Blondie at the Kazimier, Liverpool

Hot on their heels is the more conventionally Blondie-attired (in other words: monochrome stripes) Natalie McCool, who gives Call Me the Cure treatment. By adding some liquid, textured guitars and throbbing bass (and not to mention a large dose of attitude) she adds an already angst-ridden track even more bite.

Following her unconventional treatment of the Blondie oeuvre, Double Double Plus Good whack a great slab of Weezer on the 10 Bands 10 Minutes table. It turns out slacker pop-punk goes perfectly with 80s pop; their cover of Sunday Girl is quite frankly electrifying.

Cavalier Song stormed the stage and gave quite a rad, rocking and raucous turn. So rad in fact, it was quite hard to figure out which song it was (answers on a postcard please). This turns out to be a rather controversial approach, their version of events not going down too well in some quarters. Well, industrial post-rock was never going to be a crowd pleaser at a gig like this.

Things stay weird and loud as the hard rockin', vodka swillin' Salem Rages bound on stage with all the presence one would expect from a band with such a name. Despite a somewhat over-excitable entrance and a manner which comes across a little bit too stylised, that little bit too studied, the singer's demonic preacher man delivery calls to mind Dave Vanian and the psych-garage fury of a latter day MC5 gone Amon Düül II.

It's the perfect match for freakin' up such classics as X-Offender much to the by now packed out crowds pleasure and delight.

If there's a criticism of the 10 Bands approach it's that these events can sometimes feel like a wee bit of a closed shop for new artists to break into the circle. TheVoo/Silent Sleep/Puzzle/Rekordmeister collective is bursting with talent, but how much we wish the reserve of Merseyside talent was truly explored on such an accessible platform.

Just imagine Esco Williams or Miss Stylie powering through renditions on the Princeevening, or Bantom Lions and GhostChant cranking up tracks from Low on the Bowienight.

The Thespians take the stage and serve to underline this point. Relative newcomers to the 10 Bands 10 Minutes arena despite being a well-established Liverpool act, they deliver their serrated-edged pop with aplomb. New single Why Do I Like You? adds a fist to the belly before a corking cover of Maria; a track we're usually not overly enamoured with. Yet it's the band's added oomph and Jessie's purring backing vocals which make them one of the stand outs on the night.

Beach Skulls at 10 Bands, 10 Minutes: Blondie at the Kazimier, Liverpool

Beach Skulls tone things down sweetly; every evening needs its down time, right? Their subtly shimmeringly stoned, slacker vibes completely subvert the evening's general trend of messing with the Blondie formula to spectacular effect.

Their cover of The Tide is High is so true to the original you can even sing along if you want! The shy, shoe gazing (but not shoegaze) Puzzle take this approach and run with it. They added some 90s dirge to Room With A View and Hanging On The Telephone(possibly the second best cover of the night).

SIlent Sleep treated the Kazimier to a collection of spanking new songs along with a bracing rendition of Union City Blues before Married to the Sea proved why they're fast becoming the party Liverpool band.

Should you need faithful covers of literally anyone (tonight's ripping roaring versions ofOne Way Or Another and Heart Of Glass are characteristically bang on the money), then these boys are the ones to deliver. With help from an additional guest guitarist, they go from what could so easily have been another note-for-note Blondie carbon-copy into some multi-faceted and layered disco monster ensuring the live music closes on an uproarious fashion.

Fittingly the partying goes on deep into the night, with the Gold Soundz aftershow DJ spot from Andrew Ellis becoming the perfect companion to such a fun evening; 80s new-wave peppered with Prince and Rage plus The Spin Doctors and even Reeftakes late night antics to some daft, delirious, drunken new dimension. Atomic, indeed.

Pictures by Getintothis' Andrew Ab.