BOLIDES OVER BRIGHTON

... quick Saturday night in and out to Brighton to see Neil Campbell AKA Astral Social Club (check previous posts elsewhere) play at the Westhill Community Centre just a skip from the station, where a bunch of crazy kids hire out the kind of place that usually hosts amateur drama and yoga classes for the elderly. Four quid in, a carry out from the Co-Op, arse on a hard School Chair. This is the sort of gig I like!

Was taken by surprise by how good the first bunch, BOLIDE AWKWARDSTRA were - they shook a really exciting free-jazz/rock kind of thing (more the former than the latter) with guitar and electronics, plenty drums and percussion, recorder and clarinet blowing. Checked out their MySpace since and I swear they're in a realm close to ALICE COLTRANE's 'Universal Consciousness', seriously - less stately and rougher round the edges than that I suppose, but genuinely 'out' and thrilling and dynamic. Striking while the mind was soft I've ordered some of their product so looking forward to hearing more of their vibes!

Next THE POLLY SHANG KUAN BAND made a fierce and subtle noise with shitloads of pedals and electronic gizmos and microphones, not quite my cuppa but non-generic and unpredictable - highly rated by Mr Campbell just so you know.

This wasn't an Astral Social Club set, it was a trio set conspired via the interweb along with local noisist DYLAN NYOUKIS and SPIDER STACEY (from THE POGUES!!!) using voices, reeds and tin whistles processed and accompanied by further gizmology - took a while to get going but really opened up into unhindered greasy sound once they hit their stride.

A totally bargain night of way-out, sophisticated music disguised by it's unpretentious delivery in a parochial setting (Note the hi-tech stage lighting in each pic) - You could pay ten times as much to see something ten times less interesting marketed as Culture at an Establishment venue in London, and they'd take your cider off ye. Swipes against The Man aside, it was a top night.

Fashion tip for the boys playing though, if yer bending over tables of equipment and picking up instruments off the floor you might not want to wear trousers that are already halfway down yer bum - there was more arsecrack onstage that night than a building site.