By Jase Walker
Continuing this rather consistent run of shows where there’s only the single headline act, I’m back at Melkweg for the millionth time this year to catch synth drenched indie rock extraordinaire, John Grant.
John recently popped up on my radar through doing another deep dive in synth-oriented music as I frequently do when I want to discover something new and different. John Grant‘s approach that veers between subdued rock and NIN level of assorted distorted noise was very much something I was looking for, as luck would have it he happened to have a stop at Melkweg so I wasn’t going to pass off getting myself along.
As I enter the venue and take a sweeping look across the stage, there’s a smattering of various keyboards and glowing panels as you’d expect so I’m quite interested to see how this show comes across.
The venue area fills out just as John takes the stage, the murmur of chatter interrupted by atonal notes before anyone is visible under the deep violet light. The drummer appears as the floodlights die down as several vertical lights create a silhouette. Bit by bit the other members make their appearance, adding layers to the introduction and finally followed by John Grant kicking off with ‘All That School For Nothing’ and sporting a flash looking keytar! Not only that but it’s linked to a talkbox setup next to his main mic which really ups the ante on the funk. I think the drummers just clipped what they were playing into a loop pedal and jumped onto the bass for a bit of slap playing too, this is all a bit weird in a good way right from the start. Sadly it seems the keytar and its talkbox are being shuffled off already, oh well!
The show may be somewhat simple in its production compared to some of the fancy pants shows I’ve seen this year, but that does not mean it lacks style in any way. It’s quite bizarre how much the electronic elements of his music remind me so strongly of Kraftwerk, not afraid to go in hard with bleep-bloop noises and atonal noise almost like someone’s somehow glitched a Space Invaders arcade club machine with a solid kick.
This is quite an odd juxtaposition given John’s sultry Americana style of singing. ‘Marz’ reminds me so much of Jean Michelle Jarre’s ‘Oxygene’ with its hypnotic synth melodies while John sings over the top of it. There seems to be very strong overtones of Rick Wakeman or Pink Floyd with his choice of the sounds he uses mixed with the blurring of notes together with heavy reverb during ‘It Doesn’t Matter To Him’.
I love the tongue in cheek moment of putting on a long cloak and flicking it out back before sitting down to the piano and testing out a few Dutch phrases he’s been working on. It’s time to slow things down a bit with a ballad of ‘Zeitgeist’, following it up with ‘It’s Easier’ and ‘Daddy’. It’s great that the audience is mostly quiet during these songs also as it’s far too common for people to loudly talk over these sorts of moments. Finishing the ballad segment up with ‘Glacier’, this has been a lovely segment to experience as a sort of break in the set.
Back to the more darkly synth style songs and demonstrating the use of their looping synthesiser that’s oddly hanging off a spinning stand. I would encourage anyone who may have passing interest in the likes of Portishead or Massive Attack to investigate John’s music a bit because this sort of odd leftfield approach to songwriting is on a very similar vibe. It’s wild how many influences come through in various parts of Johns music, some parts remind me very strongly of Air, especially in the more downtempo songs. ‘MEEK AF’ turns up the aggression a notch and returns that bloody lovely keytar to John’s hands.
This whole set has been a real fascinating experience to be a part of, a far cry from the usually manic crowds and people falling over each other to get a bit closer to whoever is screaming at them. A hugely enjoyable journey through John Grant’s back catalogue of music, old and new. His writing is very unique to himself while still paying an immense amount of respect to the artists that have clearly inspired him and continue to do so.
A beautiful symphony of electronic music and funky sensibilities all mashed up in a unique package that has been a sublime performance.
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