Review by Ross Cotton for musicnews.com

“Seefeel certainly had something more than a legacy to live up to, as they took the Hare & Hounds back towards a dreamy beautification from a far gone shoegaze era.
New track Dead Guitars provided a reminiscent and mesmerising re-worked conceptual synth development, introducing former Boredoms drummer Iida Kazuhisa into the blend, who transfixed the track with his slow beat anaesthetic induction. While the ethereal trademark Elizabeth Frazer-style vocals gave Sarah Peacock’s atmospheric sound a sweet floaty sense amongst the oxygen, as the audience began to breathe in pure, intoxicated allurement.
By now, all signs of gravity had been removed from the room, as the waves of Rip-Run poured dolphin-like echoes into the soul of the crowd, holding onto the purest feelings of meditating euphoria.
The softened space rock sound of Airless performed a spiritual otherworldly vision, reflecting a Flying Saucer Attack-inspired daydream and new age-leading culture. Kazuhisa’s percussion became almost tribal, inviting the audience into an African rainforest for Fracture and luring them into an expressive dance like naturals. It is still extremely relevant today how much Seefeel have influenced the indie/electro crossover, while also fixating a new pioneering style to inspire future artists.
The magic of Seefeel will always live on, enchanting people into their provoking passionate world of Utopia.”

Review by John Kennedy for Brum Live

“Could you imagine Elgar, Bach or Vaughn Williams’ cello adagios thunder-busting the bass-bins? Before tonight, me neither. Which is why Lori Goldston’s not quite so mellow cello opening set of angst-fueled arpeggios, left punters mesmerized, bewildered, fascinated and eye-bleedingly catatonic in equal measure.

For me it was weird and wonderful, just like fellow punters whose hair, tattoos, accents and outfits, badges and engaging ambience provided a welcomed palliative to the grim news splattered across the Sunday linens.

Long ago, before internet, X-box and mobile phones, teenage boys’ distractions (apart from the obvious) in Tamworth, Staffs, depended on sneaking past Kaftan coated, Big Bear manager, Jim Simpson, by helping carry the PA gear for those Swarfega whiffy, metal bashing, ragged-arsed Brummies called Earth. Oh, and how heavenly loud they were.

And, can you believe it? Tony Iommi did flute solos! But very soon it seemed that the name-change to Black Sabbath might be a car-crash waiting to happen. Little did we know. So, what’s with the tenuous name-check connection? Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery (BMAG) open a Summer exhibition celebrating the Black Country and Birmingham’s heritage as the crucible of Heavy Metal thunder. There will be a prize for the clever ones who know where the moniker comes from. Yes, lyrics from Steppenwolf’s, ‘Born To Be Wild.’ Damn, gave it away there.

With bastard child, subsequent manifestations of these hallowed antecedents being realised by Seattle Grunge veteran, Dylan Carlson’s, latest incarnation line-up of his own Earth, it would have been churlish not to have checked the band out. Not so much loud as bowel-puree inducing extreme noise terror, with a side helping of Gormenghast grunge for the attic-bound Goth miserablist.

The vocal free, doom-drone, experimental-rock, lonesome guitar twangs and cello seething swoops evoke tortured nightmares of Duane Eddy and Link Wray (the latter being the godfather of fuzz-guitar by the expedient of razor-blading his speaker cones). The hypnotic-blissed, metronome is firmly fixed on mid-tempo throughout the set. Lori Goldston’s cello mix is significantly more prominent tonight than on latest album, ‘Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light,’ (notice the Miltonian inverse iconography there?).

Adrienne Davies’ drumming wove a knock, knock kockin’ on Mordor’s door mantra with Angelina Baldoz’s bass tapestries providing all sorts of subliminal, shamanic enchantments. I have never, ever been to a gig where between songs, perhaps tonal expositions is more apposite, the punters have remained utterly silent after the applause. With compositions titled with likes of ‘The Bees Made Honey In The Lion’s Skull’ a moment’s reflection was certainly welcomed.

Tonight, it bordered on reverence, and we know how H&H punters don’t take prisoners. Primal, tribal, viscerally asymmetric, it has to be said Earth’s dronal incantations are not everyone’s chosen vat of hemlock: their bruised muse being very much for the alternatively, esoterically inclined. But, subtle wiles are this band’s perplexing charm. And damnably nice people as well. Happy Daze! Thanks to Capsule for another great gig.”

Images by Katja Ogrin

Images by Kate Fitzgeorge

Review by Ross Cotton for music-news.com

“Cluttered with wires and gadgets, the MAC’s more ‘relaxed’ seated theatre had no time to prepare for the hysterical onset of spine-shivering lunacy. The psychological inducements of Matmos began.

The science-influenced duo, plus guest guitarist J Lesser, fuelled their audience into a cult-like state, with a selection of seemingly-hypnotised members of the public, chanting gibberish into their blanked out glasses and headphones. Think Derren Brown entering the world of Pagan rituals and you’re not even halfway there, as the unnerving encounter grew harsher, subconsciously adapting and embodying its victims.

Mesmerising harmonic samples and resonating triangles gave way to hospital imagery and creepy human reflections, spreading a Throbbing Gristle-inspired outlook into the dark ambience of surgical and mental experimentation.

It seems that the Baltimore-based couple knew exactly how to play with people’s imaginations, as the much lighter-hearted Rainbow Flag brought back a Zen-like state to the MAC.

Crafting psychedelic spirals against electronic swirls, the uplifted mood expelled out from Matmos’s animated facial expressions and bird whistles, allowing a whimsical side to appear from the mentally challenging avant-gardists.

While the exotic funk beats gave a post-IDM feel to J Lesser’s astounding guitar solos, warping together a fusion of electro-rock into a foot-tapping frenzy.

Forwarding what Pierre Schaeffer had once begun, Matmos innovatively break through the musique concrete barrier, with the use of bottled water, scraping singing bowls and ‘anything goes’ percussion, the duo portray abnormality in it’s greatest form of entertainment, both extremely uncomfortable and highly eccentric, the unpredictability provides that thrill ride to anybody who is keen to be pushed to their limit.”

images by Katja Ogrin

Lash Frenzy performance: