On Saturday Elephant & Castle's Corsica Studios played host to a trio of LIES live sets. Although the Lies crew have had a recent european tour, the label's artists are relatively rare bookings. And as the forthcoming title of their label compilation suggests - “Music For Shut Ins”- many of the acts on their roster are perhaps more suited to bedroom listening than dancefloor abandon.
The first to mount the hardware filled
stage was Bookworms, a young producer whose tracks have taken on an
increasingly gear heavy approach of late. His set started at full
throttle and didn't let up one iota. In place of the hypnotic
chugging rhythms which characterise his released output, were
sheets of static noise. Such industrial flecked sounds often overpowered the throbbing techno kicks beneath. It was more intense and unforgiving than I or those
around me were expecting, though what the set lacked in structure, it
more than made up for with atmospheric murk. A bracing hour which was
perhaps long enough given its challenging nature. It will be intriguing to see how Bookworms' live set
develops as he is obviously an artist with many sides to his sound,
as capable behind a drum machine as an mpc. Yet it would have been
nice to see him incorporate more sample based material, a la "African
Rhythms". This would have breathed some colour into an occasionally
monochrome performance.
After a brief interlude, it was time
for headliner, Steve Summers. A more experienced live proposition, he
oozed assuredness throughout; always ensuring the frequencies were
spot on, and really working one of the best systems in London. He
treated the revellers to a flurry of released material (he has a lot to
choose from) including the mighty “Call Of The Wild” whose
oscillating synth lines sounded triumphant, and somehow less
outré in a club than on record. Summers' experimental tendencies
surfaced as he began sequencing his own voice into the mpc, whence it
emerged with varying levels of distortion, sounding anything but
human. It was an engaging spectacle of a hardware lover at the top of
his game.