Gawd bless the good eggs at Idiot King. Not only have they
brought a taster of the forthcoming weekend’s ArcTanGent festival to Oxford for the benefit of
those of us distraught at missing out on the likes of Deafheaven, Deerhoof and
Blanck Mass, but they’ve done so in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support.
Heading back to Bristol for a second consecutive year are
100 Onces, who kick the evening off with the sort of set that screams “Follow
THIS!”. At first the duo come across like fellow LA natives No Age if they’d
not skipped so much school to smoke pot, but later a discernible affection for
the technicalities of thrash metal edges in. No bad thing, I assure you. When
guitarist Barrett Tuttobene declares that it’s time to get serious and there
should be no laughing or smiling, he’s fighting a losing battle.
If their name alone isn’t enough to recommend Alpha Male Tea Party (and let’s face it, it bloody well should be), then how’s about song
titles like ‘I Haven’t Had A Lunch Break Since Windows Vista Came Out’?
Revelling in the luxury of having both a sound engineer and a hotel for the
night, the band may not need to worry about day jobs for much longer. They’re
at their best when most uncompromising – a shame, then, that their thuggish,
stomping instrumentals start to take unnecessary detours into the drearily epic
with increasing frequency.
Headliners Tangled Hair, meanwhile, should dispense with the
vocals. Actually, they should arguably dispense with the guitar and bass too. The
stupendously talented James Trood, who also drums for former Colour bandmate
George Reid in AlunaGeorge, is the undisputed star of the show. Little wonder
that not one but two of his drumsticks feel so overworked as to give up the
ghost, splintering and snapping mid-song.
Collectively, Tangled Hair’s set is like being taught maths
by a really cool supply teacher wearing a Dismemberment Plan T-shirt –
ultimately, it’s still a maths lesson. This is music that, in its audacious time
signatures and self-conscious complexity, is very easy to admire but rather
harder to actually love.
(This review first appeared in the September issue of Nightshift.)
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