Totally Wired

 ...And here's my other review in the latest Nightshift, a more traditional gig write-up.

CRANDLE/ LEE SWITZER-WOOLF/ PLAGUE ARISH, ALL WILL BE WIRED, Library, 14/7/23 

Plague Arish is standing in at late notice, and whilst his improvised noise is a substantially more abstract and aggressive proposition than the rest of the line-up, he admirably doesn’t try to temper his material to mollify the small crowd, and dives straight in with some distorted buzzing stutters like a crossed-line conversation between Mr Punch and a robotic auctioneer. Crouched on the floor behind a jumble of devices in a voluminous black hoody and looking like Satan’s Little Helper, Plague Arish takes us on a sonic journey through digital waves crashing on a modem shore, rain that rusts itself as it falls, and the Metatron with nagging heartburn...or, if you’re less fanciful, a whole bunch of skreeps and blatters. Whatever it is, it sounds good (or occasionally horrible, which is, we suspect, the point). 

Like a grandmother advising you take your coat off indoors or you won’t feel the benefit later, Lee Switzer-Woolf could not have asked for a better contrast to bring out the melancholic delicacy of his songs. Built from a sparse palette of acoustic guitar, hissing drum machine, and spindly vocals, his songs cast a bittersweet spell which recalls Arab Strap at their least beered-up and potty-mouthed.  One track features a seasick loop which sounds like 20% of a RZA beat and a mordant spoken tale of a decaying relationship something like Croydon’s Superman Revenge Squad, but is immediately followed by a chirpy pop rhythm which could have been used by Tiffany. A surprisingly varied, but consistently enthralling set. 

If David Lynch ever managed a wedding band, they’d sound like Crandle. The duo turn their keyboard, tremulous vintage guitar tones, and cheesy programmed drums to a wide range of covers, moving from Shakira to Shania Twain via Alex Chilton and Leonard Cohen. They play these pocket torch songs like a Kinder Egg Chris Isaak and a Happy Meal Lana Del Rey, and if this might not be a set to shift anyone’s musical paradigms it’s certainly reason to shuffle some shoe leather, which is more than enough on a Friday night.