@alpaca.presents By Jacob Jefferson
Rain rain's. Winter winter's. February 8th 2024. This is probably the first gig I've been to in nearly a couple of months. Haven't really felt the urge, the pull. Why go outside and watch other people's bodies play instruments when I can listen to Rock Your Body by Justin Timberlake an inconceivable number of times, in my room (no lights), on my cracked phone out of its dirt encrusted speakers? But alas… with the need for a new activity clawing at me from the inside, I scoot scoot through the rain rain to ¡CROFTERS RIGHTS!. I park the rented E-scoot with incredible technique, exchange some words in a brief phone call with my cousin, sheltering underneath damp scaffolding, and head inside to sit at the back of a room to watch bodies play music and write about the whole thing with an incredible lack of nuance.
Dystonia
This was Dystonia's first ever gig! I thought they were pretty good, I quite liked a few of the tunes, as well as some of the accessories worn by these three boys. The drums in their first song had this real galloping feel that plodded along excitingly, exciting horse-like drum beat. A guitar arpeggio with a bit of delay sounded off the end of the first song, which they used as some background ambience whilst they pleasantly introduced themselves to the crowd and to shout-out Pirate Studios.
Once chatter closes off, the repeating riff cleverly evolves into the intro for the next song, evolving like the great lineage of homosapien before us. I very distinctly remember enjoying the chorus on this one, impeccable bassline if I recall correctly.
Over the rest of their set, Dystonia consistently displayed a precise level of controlled aggression, as well as a great sense for emotive and melodic song-writing. These elements intertwined with each other very well, making for an exciting display of sonic identity and group character that one is able to pleasantly sink their teeth into (metaphorically speaking).
It’s always nice to see a band starting out, determined and already holding a strong sense of identity and purpose. I hope to see these guys continue to play and grow, hopefully catch them again somewhere down the line.
Milkfiz
These lot are mental, like seriously crazy. Blaring horns, rompant beats, wacky mouth sounds; it’s very of that art-rockified klezmer music that the kids love these days. Some dude standing in front of me said this lot sounded like “if Slayer tried to do a jazz album”. I’d say it kind of sounds like the soundtrack to that Dick and Dom Bungalow show but if it was set half a year into one of those apocalypse scenarios where everythings dusty and everyone's evil wearing spikes and riding motorbikes and that. Dick and Dom have both gone insane and just force the contestants they’ve kept around this whole time to dance to this music. In a nutshell, the music is a bit psychotic, with a stage presence to match.
“This song is about the music” says the singer, fittingly introducing one tune. I think that kind of absurd IDGAF slapstick post-irony rock and roll shtick is incredibly in right now, it tickles the funny little chaotic region of my heart anyways.
At one point, after one member of the band shouts “f*ck Brendon Urie”, they treat the crowd to a brief cover of ‘I Write Sins Not Tragedies’ that completely derails itself after the first verse, instead throwing itself into that crazy horn-laced rock and roll that sounds like being drunk in a bouncy castle. Pure art.
Ohthekink!
To my utmost joy and delight, the first thing I notice about Ohthekink is the inclusion of a small cool looking keytar held by the vocalist; a nice lipstick pickup guitar too on the left hand side. They gradually roll their way into their set, improvisationally building up an experimental atmosphere that echoes influences of psych and free jazz. It’s almost like listening to a hypnosis piece with added drums and bass, grounding you in the groove as the other elements hover about in varying states of independence and connection to each other.
What stands out the most about the band is how effortlessly sonically inventive they are, it’s very difficult to pin them down to a specific sound, as they subtly shift between influences and styles at a consistent rate, whilst maintaining an authentically alien style.
Their inventive character is punctuated by the heavily affected radio-transmission like vocals, broadcasting words straight from the singer’s notebook, which he holds in hand, lit up by a head torch that shines like a UFO, set to strobe as the improvisation crescendos and lighting up the room full on hypnotized on-lookers.
For fans of: King Gizzard, Black Moth Super Rainbow
The night ends. I buy and consume a bag of wheat crunchies from the shop next door, somehow the smell of wheat crunchies lingered upon my hand many hours past the dawn.
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