The Filaments: Purple Turtle
Posted by jamie on Jan 17, 2012
Filaments, Jakal, Stand Out Riot, Skets
Purple Turtle, Camden
14th January 2012
Jamie
To give credit where credit’s due, Sick Mosh Promotions put on a party like few others. The Filaments haven’t headlined a London show in more than a year, so to get this show in to a venue the size of Camden’s Purple Turtle is an achievement in itself.
Chuck in two excellent local supports, a wonderfully chaotic performance from the consistently fantastic Stand Out Riot and then kick off your after-party with Ian Dury (on CD, obviously) and you know you’re on to something good.
More tickets were available on the night, but this show still sold out for the second time. It’s not long after seven when we arrive, and even then it’s difficult to actually get inside the place. You’d think they’d tried to put on Guns n’ Roses in the back of a mini, and still pushed the front seats back.
Skets, a boisterously aggressive six-piece punk band from South London, have worked up a good head of steam by now and, cheerily ask for “a bit more aggro” from an already rowdy, frantic pit. If it’s actually possible to get more, then I’m sure they actually got more aggro. From our squashed-in little vantage point it sort of seemed like everything just happened a bit faster: band and pit racing against each other in sweaty, sweary unison for the rest of a spicily short, entertaining set.
Manchester’s Stand Out Riot are at their spiky, ebullient best. It’s another new line-up, Danny Fairhurst having joined on guitar/vocals.
By now the vantage point is more a view of the shoulders of some very large men, pounding shots of something black and sticky that smells of aniseed. Watching the tops of their heads bobbing giddily up and down, back and forth from the other side of a sweaty mangle of pumping fists, the little we can see from here suggests it’s pretty much business as usual: Stand Out Riot, looking like a bunch of pirates and playing like a family of gypsies in a fight with a wasps’ nest.
And so to the Filaments. It’s been much too long already, and, as if to build on the already palpable sense of anticipation, they leave it a tiny bit late before ambling, casually, on to the stage.
Soon enough there are feet, and whole bodies, bobbing about on what was already a sea of pumping fists and bobbing heads. The Filaments are clearly delighted to be here, and ride the wave of delirium brought in by an eager crowd. It’s just one of those shows where everything comes together perfectly, and their powerful, brass-powered take on ska and hardcore is a fitting end to a spectacular show. Squashed in to this little room, and bang on form, they sound absolutely enormous: gravelly vocals soaring over giant horn riffs and dirty great big basslines as the gig itself draws to a close. The bar stays open, mind, and there’s still plenty of partying to be done.
2012: Filaments London show
Posted by jamie on Nov 23, 2011
For the first time in more than a year, the Filaments have announced a headline show in London. It goes off at the Purple Turtle in Camden on Saturday 14th January, 2012. Support comes from Jakal and Stand Out Riot.
Get tickets here.
Stand Out Riot: on tour
Posted by jamie on Jun 23, 2011
Stand Out Riot are will tour Europe and the UK this summer.
Full dates:
25th June - FuturePerfect Festival, Manchester, UK
1st July - The Old Cock, Halifax, UK
2nd July - The Swan With 2 Necks, Macclesfield, UK
3rd July - De Geniepegen Drauk, Aalst, BE
4th July - The Warehouse, Gent, BR
5th July - Cafe Lokaal, Heemskerk,
6th July - Dynamo, Eindhoven, NL
7th July - Wild at Heart, Berlin, DE
Stand Out Riot, TAlan and Kickback
Posted by chips on Apr 5, 2010
Stand Out Riot and the Apostates have been named as support to Tyrannosaurus Alan and Kickback UK at Deptford’s Bird’s Nest on 1st July.
You can join the facebook event here.
TNS008 / AWAS, Stand Out Riot & Sense Of Urgency
Posted by jamie on Mar 31, 2010
Sense of Urgency / Stand Out Riot / AWarAgainstSound
TNS008: TNS Records
31st March, 2010
Jamie
As tours started to come thick and fast, this review’s taken a while to get itself published. We apologise to the label and all the bands.
After TNS008 landed on our doorstep, Bananatown had a quick chat on facebook to some of the guys at TNS Records about exactly how they’d like the record reviewed: “too many people”, we learned, “review skacore as ska”. That’s a valid point, though there’s not really a total consensus yet as to exactly what skacore is. Let’s face it: incorporating new elements in to a term that’s as broad as ska already was is always going to leave a lot of room diversity, and, inevitably, dissent.
The difficulty for me, then, is to neatly sum up a genre, and, trust me, I hate using genres anyway, that could stretch from the Mighty Mighty Bosstones to the Flaming Tsunamis and, in doing so, remain cool in the eyes of one of the UK’s more discerning grass-roots labels, and one with a remarkable strength of passion for their music. No pressure, then.
Well, when the going gets tough, the tough turn to Urban Dictionary. Just for back-up, you know. And to deflect the blame.
One brilliantly named user refers to “Ska mixed with hardcore. Fast speed ska and bone crunching acoustic lyrics [whatever bonecrunching acoustic lyrics are] and name checks Folly, the Flaming Tsunamis and Big D. The next tells us “Almost all Skacore bands come from Britain and include bands such as Capdown, Lightyear.. and Sonic Boom Six.
What we’ll settle on, then, is basically a mash of a raw, angst-fuelled hardcore vocal and guitar riffs with room for a more old-school ”whoah-oh” backing vocals, horns, and the odd upstroke. There’s more to it than a marriage of ska and hardcore that gives it its name, but I’m sure you get the idea.
Sense of Urgency open the record, and get four tracks to the others’ three. Three of those, though, clock in at less than five minutes’ length in total. Predictably, the pace they’ve set is blistering, and their sound is good, really good. So good that you can’t fail to be struck by it within the first few seconds. It’s basically a headlong sprint through a wall of high-speed sound. Imagine having the music fired at you out of a carwash when you’ve got your roof down and you’re most of the way there. From the first snotty, impassioned growl to the closing thud of all instruments in unison, opening track Glory Days is basically skacore’s answer to the hit-and-run, but faster, and it sets the tone perfectly for the rest of their tracks. Lowbrow is closer to two minutes than one, but comes out of the traps just as fast. The Night We Exploded sees as song explored in all of its detail for the first time, and it’s clear there’s plenty in there once it gets the chance to be properly scrutinised. Just like the other tracks, it’s packed with hooks yet bigger and meaner than would really be feasible at first peek. Everything’s been executed perfectly, and the songs here are an absolute joy. Quite what they must be like in concert is something I fear I can only imagine, but, having been pinned back and battered with glorious riffs and melodies, yes, melodies, and having had the breath knocked out of me by the sheer speed of what’s just hit me (and a cold, I admit), it’s something I’m desperate to experience. By the end of Silent Seeth you’ll be gasping for air. And that doesn’t happen too often, eh?
Quite sensibly, perhaps, Stand out Riot kick off This Is Not a Movement with a gentle strum across one guitar. Don’t be fooled, though, vocals build over an ominous drum beat before the song kicks in proper. Drawing strength and power from three vocalists and three horn players, when this does kick in it’s really something to behold. The record’s first upstroke, while totally skankable, is something of a reprieve, a quick breather before the song runs off again, becoming a guitar solo, and then a breakdown that steadily gathers power in a crescendo of vocal and brass before clicking instantly back in to first gear and running away with you again. Tessa Hunt’s violin, though not especially prominent, is a particular treat. I’ll leave you to watch out for it. Black Widow is a bit of a departure, in that it’s almost spoken throughout, and slows at parts to a rhythmic, fist-pumping chant. Throughout, though, it keeps hold of that brooding, sinister undertone, it still showcases all the instruments and finds time to break itself down in to its component parts: one horn riff is almost eerie for a second, in a way that’s almost dub, before a high-pitched violin that’s nearly Gogol Bordello before the whole song returns in all its glory and suddenly disappears to be replaced equally quickly by Law and Hors d’Oeuvres.
The band’s final track is stunning: a bassline that’s almost jazz in spots, and vocal that swings from hardcore to nearly rap and back, and horns. Couldn’t ask for much more, could you? It’s delivered at times in that same frenetic sprint, and at times slows to a more introspective, foreboding, rhythm-heavy stomp, before vanishing altogether. All together, their three songs are incredible: these guys are a seriously talented band. The songs are good but the way they’ve been put together here is really exceptional. Again breathless, though in a different way and somewhat lost for words (again, that’s a rarity), I’ve had to press pause here for sec.
Returning to AWarAgainstSound, I’ve stumbled on three tracks that bring another different take on the word skacore. To Fraud a Cause opens with a gentle, slowly building bassline that’s joined by drums and guitar and declines numerous opportunities to take off in to a riot of riffs, screams, etc. It’s almost a novelty, in this context, for a band not to include a horn-section. These guys are a classic drums-bass-and-two-guitars four-piece, and they all sing. This opening track is five minutes in length, and teases at various points, breaking in to upstrokes, riffs, and chanted vocals without ever soaring in to the epic rock that it often hints at. That’s no bad thing: there are loads to enjoy about this little song. By the time it fades out around duelling guitars and bass and a heartfelt vocal, To Fraud a Cause has done plenty to please.
For Nothing and No one takes over, and continues at a similar vein: you’re expecting a crescendo, but, at every drop out, AWAS return with choppy, peppy, ska guitars and a raw nasal vocal that’s almost spat. In these places they’re the most punk of all the bands on the record, in the musical sense, and there’s more than a nod or two towards the greats of that scene. There’s also a hint of Joey Terrifying, or Ghymp, for example, but, though evocative in places, their songwriting is pretty idiosyncratic, as well as thoroughly dance-and-skank-able. The superbly named Pull Your Twos Out Your Pocket Then Say “Do You Mean These?” finishes the disc, and is notably the biggest, rawest and most powerful of AWAS’s three tracks. Again, Ed half sings and half sneers it, and then, all at once, as it gently fades to quiet for a moment, it thumps back in with a boom, a heart-felt cry over a crescendo of guitar and the drums effectively attacked, it’s more than half-way through their last song, and they’ve allowed themselves to rock out. It’s still brilliantly executed, comes as something of a surprise, albeit a surprise that they’ve hinted at all along, and then they’re gone. The CD spins to a stop in front of me. Phew: this has been tiring stuff; it’s a great little record and one that promises a peak in to the future of our scene – especially in the North. Respect must go to the folk at TNS for the love and effort they’ve put in to gathering such a fine selection of bands and putting all of this together. It’s been well worth it, guys.
