What sort of music do you like? Oh, you
know, bit of everything. Since about
2004 that has been the only answer given by anyone to this question. Without exception. Perhaps it’s now international statute and
we somehow missed the announcement.
Whatever the reason, I really miss a time when people were honest about
genre affiliations, and happily, even proudly, stated their predilection for
trad jazz, northern soul, baroque, drum n bass, or what have you, because most
of these “bit of everything” types secretly only really go to one sort of
gig. That’s partly why I like Skeletor
promotions: they just say, “screw it, we like metal. So here’s some metal. Did we mention the metal?”
And not only do they provide a much-needed metal service,
they do it bloody well, offering monthly gigs mixing high calibre local and
touring acts, sorting us much-needed drinks deals in the rather pricy Academy,
and making suitably crass metal posters with all skeletons and that on. They’re also not afraid to give stage time
to Oxfordshire’s younger metal fraternity, giving exciting Academy shows to
teenage bands who wouldn’t even be allowed into the majority of Oxford’s
venues.
You want technical metal, progressive metal, death metal,
some other sort of metal that you might not be able to accurately categorise,
but which is definitely metal? Good on
you, go to Skeletor, it’s fucking great for metal. Unless you want stoner metal, in which case
go to Buried In Smoke, who are equally great, but perhaps that’s another
article for another day.
YELLOW FEVER/ BRIGHTWORKS/ DUCHESS, The Wheatsheaf,
3/1/14
Anyone who has been to the wrong student parties is wary
of percussion: witnessing a stoned gaggle attempt to recreate side two of Exile On Main Street using only bongos
and kitchen implements can put you off for life. Still, in the right hands it can be a
powerful tool, and Duchess are at their best when three of them are bashing,
scraping or rubbing away at something sonorous, whilst chirpy pop vocals and
African-influenced guitars gambol gaily over the top. From the “Wild Side” fret slides at the start
, to the Bow Wow Wow does Taiko clamour at the end, Duchess’ set is a bundle of bouncy, upbeat
glee, and if it might feel as though they’d dropped through a timewarp from a
UCL charity bop in 1986, one’s cynicism can only survive as long as one’s feet remain
still.
Brightworks also swipe a few Ghanaian guitar licks, but
are an altogether odder proposition. The
mathpop trickeries are an interesting addition, albeit not one to raise many
Oxonian eyebrows, but the vocalist is what really makes Brightworks unique,
crooning poetic fragments with an atonal angst, whilst occasionally poking out
rinky-dink lines on a tiny keyboard, like an emo John Shuttleworth. Occasionally they remind us of rubbery 80s
pranksters Stump, but in general easy reference points remain elusive. Brightworks are many things throughout their
set, and, frankly, “any good” isn’t always one of them, but we need artists
whose output can’t be boiled down to a single hashtag. Now more than ever.
Yellow Fever have always been fun, but in their early
days they were happy to base their sound on Arctic Monkeys’ rabble pop, which
placed them firmly in a comfortable, crowded field. Over the past couple of years they’ve refined
this sound, removing the blokey, everyman wallop and replacing it with either a
taut intensity that brings them in line with local heroes Spring Offensive, or
a freeze-dried fake funk that is a little like early Foals. At their very best Alexis Panidis’
woodblock-heavy rhythms underpin (yet more) West African guitar twiddles and
Dele Adewuyi’s quietly emphatic vocals smuggle in an emotional subtlety, and
you can’t help but feel that another year or so will see them as one of
Oxford’s very finest acts.
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