By Jase Walker
After today’s mad dash through Manchester (sorry about the short notice – Ed), over the border into Salford for tonight’s HEALTH show at the White Hotel, I’ve got a moment to take in the post-industrial decline aesthetic of the area surrounding the venue and I’d never have expected an actual gig venue in a place like this, especially in the Greater Manchester area.
HEALTH sort of appeared out of nowhere to me earlier this year with them coming on a Spotify random shuffle almost immediately following them being announced as support for the Perturbator tour later this year. The sound of these guys really took me by surprise, as initially I was thinking they sounded similar to Gunship with the whole dark synth vibe this particular song has but that was immediately followed up with another song that sounded similar to Cult Leader’s mathy death metal style: quite a bit of a jump.
In support tonight is Maenad Veyl, who I’ve not heard of before, even in passing either I think! I’ve legitimately got no idea what to expect but I’ve got myself a nice spot almost right in front of the stage so let’s find out!
As the show starts, the crowd falls dead silent, a bit of a rarity at gigs I can tell you that, seems like something is amiss though? Sadly, a quick stage exit for Maenad Veyl while the sound engineer jumps into action to check the equipment over. After a brief moment, it looks like we’re back in action! One person acts can generally be a bit hit or miss, because often you don’t have other influences which can temper the more eccentric elements but so far this is some pretty banging dark, gothy rave and I am digging it!
As this is a single person electronic music showcase, it seems they’re essentially blending all the tunes into one single mix as it progresses through the live set. There’s been a pretty consistent theme going across the whole thing but remains decently interesting, it strikes me as the sort of music you’d hear in Cyberpunk 2077 or something to that effect, it’s got a real cyber style element to it, good stuff!
It’s time for HEALTH, the backing music abruptly stops and gives way to a synth string intro and the crowd knows it’s time for their check-up. Honestly I have no idea what to expect from this, possibly one of the most eclectic bands I’ve come across recently, eager to find out what they’re like!
The live show with just the three of them is absolutely bizarre, synth sections that are reminiscent of Gunship like I mentioned earlier interspersed with sudden shifts to heavy thunderous hits of noise which appears to be coming from a vocal mic through a synth bank. Quite early into the set we get one of their more popular tracks, ‘Stonefist’ with its ethereal, Depeche Mode-esque chorus.
Every little bit further we get into this show, all I can think is “This is wild, I really didn’t expect this”, every song is punctuated with segues to unusual electronic passages, to dreamy synthy choruses and generally sounds that are greater than the sum of its (three-piece) parts. On the whole, the show didn’t really put on display some of the heavier songs that are on the ‘DISCO4’ albums, which is a little odd but it’s been great getting exposed to the more synth side of their back catalogue.
I absolutely cannot wait to see these guys on a bigger stage in support of Perturbator later this year. It’s going to be absolutely bloody marvellous.
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