Scarlet Soho, Greg-from-Neo, Princess
Drive and Loophole. Portland Arms. 19/6/03
By Holl(i)y
Last minute bill-additions Loophole came as a very pleasant
surprise indeed. The musical equivalent of a disappearing subway train
- only with TUNES -
underneath a siren-like lead vocal reminiscent of a demon on a rollercoaster.
Which adds up to good noise. Theoretically I'd write a lengthy praising
rant, but I was far too tired that night to stand up withoutconcentrating,
which has left me unable to describe them effectively - but do believe
me when I say you should check them out.
Princess Drive gave me the impression of knowing how
their music should be(loud, punk, rock, politics and disillusion, a
hint of funk) and of having the basic ingredients of riffs and shouting
nailed down, without quite having figured out how to shape that into
a song which goes somewhere and
sounds like a complete tune.
They've got all the right ideas, all the ingredients for something that
utterly rocks are there, they just need to
move from a set of worthy but disjointed musical ideals to putting those
ideas together into something coherent. I await further developments
with interest...
You wouldn't guess if asked to that Neo's hard-edged
glittering punk-pop gems would work in an acoustic set, but you'd be
wrong. Even without the
hefty adrenaline rush the full band provides, the tunes are strong enough
to stand alone.
Not quite as good as the full-blown drums and bass all-inclusive band,
but still well worth the main support slot and gaining more attention
than is normally given to acoustic sets by the impatient
bar-congregating masses.
And finally the black-clad Scarlet Soho enter to throw
themselves around the stage for the next half hour. Falling somewhere
between rock and electro, S. Soho manage to make drum-machine sterility
the basis for some damn exciting
music, tight and fast and startlingly original, rocking out with the
best of them but in the least obvious of ways.
They've got their sound down to a T and know exactly where they want
to go with it - now they just need an A&R man somewhere to overcome
his fear of That Which Is Musically Different and to get them the exposure
they deserve...
|