Jon Hopkins, SVIIB, Winterlight, Kontakte and port-royal

A few stellar gigs of recent times and an excuse to reflect on some great music.

It started with a local trip to Club AC30‘s long awaited night featuring electronic shoegaze pioneers, port-royal and Winterlight, two bands I have been wanting to see since this blog was just four words long. Just up the road from my place of work, the effort I put in to attending this gig was severely overshadowed by the hundreds of miles covered by the Italian’s of port-royal and the arduous six hour drive of Cornwall’s finest, Tim Ingham aka Winterlight.

Yes. Of course it was worth it (you were asking right?!) Winterlight, catching the early slot came on to a familiar applause in the North London basement, the perfect reception for such an intimate music style. With his lush guitars and glistening textures, the pose of two looming figures almost seemed surreal when compared to the ethereal sound beaming in to the bustling crowd. My friend with me had never heard of any of the bands playing on the night and Winterlight had him smiling from the off. It’s a shame Tim’s forthcoming album on N5MD isn’t out before Christmas, that would have been the present sorted!

Winterlight – Mirror

Kontakte took it up a notch, testing the system, pushing out some pulsating guitars and stretching the melodies even further into the top-end of the guitar spectrum. Like a neatly curated DJ set, Kontakte and Winterlight completed the perfect job in building up the awaiting Italians.

Kontakte – Pacific Coast Highway

Needless to say, port-royal quickly delivered the pounding electronica they are becoming well acclaimed for. With Tim from Winterlight joining them on stage, they induced a well initiated crowd into a rocking frenzy and dare I say it, I think a few people may have been dancing when ‘Balding Generation’ kicked in… (or was that just me?)

port-royal – Anna Ustinova

November 8th and on to Heaven for a massively anticipated Jon Hopkins gig. Oh, did I mention School of Seven Bells were playing too?! In early, I wasn’t going to miss Jon ‘warming up’ for SVIIB.

Within a half empty archway (Heaven is pretty big considering it was a Monday gig starting at 8PM), Jon came on to a rapturous applause and timidly took to his weapon of mass destruction… Yes, that’s what I’m calling it. It may have been a desk, a mixer, a Kaos pad a laptop, a bottle of beer and a few other bits, but Jon put them all together like Einstein’s nuclear equation and blew the entire place up within thirty minutes. ‘Light Through The Veins’ opened up to ‘Vessel’, ‘Wire’ and several new tracks which ripped up the ‘just out of work’ rocking onlookers. Climaxing with a live remake of ‘Insides’, Jon scratched and manipulated the squelches, textures and bass to new levels. At one point i think I’d moved back a metre purely by the vibrations. It was safe to say, Jon warmed this place up.

Jon Hopkins – Insides (Live at ICA)

After such an epic intro, I wasn’t sure how SVIIB were going to follow. They however took the approach that Alejandra only knows best. Encapsulating, beautiful vocals with a mesmerizing stage presence. Within minutes the place was filled with a new kind of musical respect; Jon provided the dark wizardry, SVIIB were about to provide the angelic grace.

With such a beautiful vocal, the loudness of Heaven’s sound system done Alejandra no justice and she was at times drowning within Benjamin Curtis’ guitars. But the crowd stuck with it and a lengthy set was followed by an extended applause, before a well received encore.

Up next? I feel a few well needed Bath’s are in order.

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