This was my first review for Nightshift, a few years ago now. I miss The Point promotion. I miss The Zodiac venue. I miss The E Band's silliness. Pretty ambivalent about the memory of AOS, I'm afraid.
THE E BAND/ ASSASSINS OF SILENCE, The Point, The Zodiac
Enter, unexpectedly at a Friday night Point event, The Assassins Of Silence, a Hawkwind tribute act. Reviewing a tribute act without deep foreknowledge of the tributee is always dangerous work, but it must be said that the gig was rather more tame than I was epxecting. There may have been some dayglo amps, but where were the galaxy-swallowing synth washes? Where were the nebula-destroying phase pedals? Isn't this sort of mid-paced blues wailing just one small step away from facile roadhouse boogie? The Assassins are nice and tight, and play with an obvious respect for the canon they've adopted, but if this is spacerock it felt oddly earthbound. Esteemed passangers, take off has been delayed indefinitely; we shall be serving complimentary lemon scented napkins shortly.
In complete contrast, The E Band's music is open-ended and intriguing. They may only play in one key (no prizes for guessing) but manage a fair range of effects. The formula is simple: the guitar, bass and brass apparently improvise over an electronic backing, whilst a melancholy monologue is recited over the top. Clearly this could have turned into a 6th form exercise in self-congratulatory "experimentation", but luckily the beats could rock blocks in six dimensions, the guitarists wove variegated textures, and the vocals had a real sense of quiet drama. And they had a trombone, which is something we can't encourage enough.
Time will tell if this is a musical one-liner or a serious endeavour, but The E Band certainly have a knack with freeform soundscapes. In the end we got a little psychedelia after all.
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