HEALTH // BLK JKS // Banjo or Freakout // Young British Artists @ The Deaf Institute, Manchester. 22nd April 2009

HEALTH don’t come to town to often in fact they don’t even come to my town at all so I’ve had to trek all the way to Manchester to see their intense dinosaur sounding noise in the flesh as that’s probably the best way to take them in.

HEALTH//LIVE > HEALTH > HEALTH//DISCO > HEALTH//MERCH

I was also happy to find out that African band BLK JKS are supporting as I heard about them late last year and have failed on all accounts at grabbing any of their music despite loving the idea of a post-punk sounding band with amazing African riddims. Tonight is my chance.

Banjo or Freakout are also on the bill and they are a group I didn’t think I knew until I realised blogs were a blaze with their accoustic version of Burial’s beautiful Archangel a while back. You may as well grab the track in question from the wonderful blog//label//whatever No Pain In Pop. So we will see what they have in store in the live environment.

Now for the complete unknowns to me anyway: Young British Artists. I have no idea what they sound like but they are local and made it onto this bill so hopefully it will be a nice surprise.

After masses of delays from somewhere between an hour and a half to two hours the first band Young British Artists came on and to be honest they didn’t do much for me at all. Sure they could play but nothing much happened to get me going in anyway shape or form.

Next up was Banjo or Freakout helped out on drums by one of Gentle Friendly. It was a wicked mish-mash of shoegazing electronica and tribal beat loops with a smidge of indie pop. By this time we realised the delayers where going to stop us from seeing that much music tonight though so it really put a damper on the evening. The highs of Banjo or Freakout’s set were mesmerising it was a real joy to hear.

BLK JKS all the way from South Africa really killed it mind. When they came on the night really found its feet. The band are as tight as hell, playing a kind of Affrican-Jazz-Post-Punk-Indie-Rock hybrid full of atmospheric surges that the Manc crowd were well up for talking all over, all the way to full on big stage anthem rock outs. The drums really pushed BLK JKS above and beyond he could punch out tight skipping African grooves as intricate and mesmerising as some of the best Jazz and African drummers I’ve seen, but he could really pound them out like a rock hero. Fuck me it was good. The songs were enchanting and massively danceable the way they effortlessly went from dubbed out soudscapes to full on rockin’ out was brilliant.

Then the night took a turn for the worse, for us anyway. As the gig had ran so late for some reason we had to leave before the main event to catch our train or we would be stranded. We weren’t happy at all it was a fucking nightmare. So travelling miles to see one of our favourite bands HEALTH was scuppered by people turning up far to late. So I have no clue what the new material sounds like now let alone feel the intense beat heavy tribal brutality of their live show, fuck.

YOU WILL MISS OUR BAND YOU WILL MISS OUR BAND YOU WILL MISS OUR BAND YOU WILL MISS OUR BAND YOU WILL MISS OUR BAND YOU WILL MISS OUR BAND YOU WILL MISS OUR BAND YOU WILL MISS OUR BAND YOU WILL MISS OUR BAND YOU WILL MISS OUR BAND YOU WILL MISS OUR BAND YOU WILL MISS OUR BAND YOU WILL MISS OUR BAND YOU WILL MISS OUR BAND YOU WILL MISS OUR BAND YOU WILL MISS OUR BAND YOU WILL MISS OUR BAND

http://www.myspace.com/youngbritishartists

http://www.myspace.com/banjoorfreakout

http://banjoorfreakout.blogspot.com/

http://www.myspace.com/blkjks

http://www.myspace.com/healthmusic