There's something fundamentally strange about sitting down to watch music that's designed to make you move around. So The Barbican might not be the first choice of venue to put on a gig of this sort, but it certainly gives the evening a sense of occasion, which is fitting as the concert was put on to celebrate ten years of Bleep. Starting as the online store for Warp Records releases, it's since expanded to include a wide range of labels and artists, but still fitting with the Warp Ethos.
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| Mount Kimbie, Barbican Centre, London 25/4/14 |
For their part of the show Mount Kimbie collaborated with artists Thomas Hamen and Igor Zimmerman. The two artists created a massive foil canopy over the stage, lifted by wind machines, that was lit from above and below. The best comparison I can think of is that it looked a bit like one of the solar sailers from Tron. Meanwhile projections based on works by Hamen played on each side of the band. Over the years Mount Kimbie have evolved into an impressive live act, more forceful than they are on record, and boosted by a live saxophone and trombone they put on a great show. It was definitely a different kind of experience to when I saw them at Koko last year, perhaps more thoughtful and less full-on, so it was good to see another facet of their character.
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| Fuck Buttons live at The Barbican, London 25/4/12 |
Fuck Buttons meanwhile have spent some of the money I assume they made out of soundtracking the Olympics on some impressive new visuals to match the more abrasive sound of their latest album 'Slow Focus'. As a result their live show is now a far more enthralling experience, and you no longer feel that you're just watching two blokes standing at either sides of a table. Their set was a mix of tracks from old and new albums, played with skill and force. In that venue, matched with the visuals, the music had an almost cinematic quality, with real power. As the night progressed pockets of people could no longer resist the rhythms and stood up to dance, challenging the rest to join in.
After the main show there was a free performance from Fennesz in one of the Barbican;s many spaces to round the evening off.
All in all it was a great show and a fitting way to mark Bleep's tenth birthday - long may they continue!
Mount Kimbie show was far from being good and the word “Impressive” is too generous for such an exciting band. I appreciate the amount of effort by the musician and by the artist trying to get a good music and visual act, but the show was mediocre and boring except perhaps, some good moments at the beginning and the great guitar sound. The musicians didn’t seem to be connected and looked more like a couple of friends playing in the living room while tuning their guitars. One may be tempted to blame the sound system or sound engineer, but having seen Fuck Buttons afterwards, it showed that the Barbican PA and Sound Eng. were in good shape. Bad for the musicians.
ReplyDeleteAgain, a lot of effort from the artists to get a nice atmosphere, set design and lights. The fans were noisy (irrelevant that they were really, it did not affect the performance). The structure to support them looked cheap, and although it did its job, I was a bit concerned that it would fail and collapsed but finally happy it didn’t happened. Very good ideas with the fans, foil and water light effect, however, after 5 minutes we ended up looking a two rectangular screens with nothing and a miniature noisy festival tent fighting its way to become a flat shaped foil! Too much stroboscopic lights, impressive what they did to make them work for 6 minutes continuously without causing an electrical short (in the electrical equipment and in the people’s eyes!) The blue lights facing the audience were also very annoying. Bad for the artist.
I have seen MK before and I know this was not their best performance. I love their music and acts and hopefully I can see them again in good shape.
I've seen them a few times before too, and I do think they've evolved into an impressive band. This show wasn't necessarily better or worse than others, it was a different sort of experience and I thought they played it well. I agree the sound quality wasn't great and it improved for Fuck Buttons, but you can't really hold that against MK.
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