By Jase Walker
After one of the most stressful days I’ve had in a long time that has been a non-stop catalogue of fuck ups, including leaving my house keys at work and having to waste 45 minutes returning for them, it’s time to let off some steam. By that I mean gorge myself on psychedelic bleepy bloop synths courtesy of BEAK>.
Along for the tour is Litronix who I had been assured by my Manchester cohort are absolutely fantastic – and he’s seldom wrong about this stuff. I find my usual perch at Melkweg’s OZ stage over to the left so I can get a good view of what’s happening on stage and the amount of kit on the stage is mind blowing, this is a case study for tripping hazards in the making.
A sole person takes the stage, dons a guitar and places himself in front of the mass of dials and pedals with a text ticker at the front with various messages scrolling across it. This feels very Pink Floyd-esque to start, but before long the guitar is put behind him and he takes the microphone and starts singing while also doing what looks to be the robot pop’n’lock at the same time.
This is definitely a very odd show but I’m all about that weird stuff so this is right up my street! It’s fascinating seeing the sort of unusual hypnotic melodies he’s kicking out as a result of reverb and delay abuse, while at the same time constantly making small adjustments to the smattering of electronics he has on the table before him. It’s bizarre how his between-song monologue is also glitched and “broken” while leading into the next song. His vocals remind me a bit of Roger Waters’ use of reverb during the likes of ‘The Wall’ and ‘Animals’, with that really short echo and somewhat aggressive spoken word style.
I’ve seen a few one man shows where it’s a sole person in control of a mind-boggling amount of equipment, Author And Punisher to name just one, but to see these sorts of shows done live and the sheer amount of work involved making it work is incredible. There are even solid traces of Talking Heads bleeding through at times, especially when using a similar vocal style as David Byrne, although he doesn’t quite have the room to make use of such dance moves. The set ended maybe a bit quicker than I anticipated but what a wonderfully weird and bizarre performance, I loved it.
Not ones for particularly grand openings, BEAK> simply appear, get to their spots and press go. The start out sounding similar to some sort of church sermon thanks to the organ effect from the keys. I can spy their drummer’s stick grip from my perch and he’s probably the only drummer I’ve seen ever using a traditional grip with the underhand on the left hand. The gigantic BEAK> logo behind them lights up and behinds to slowly shift through colours, it’s time for a demonstration of bizarre and wonderful music. I’m quite in awe of the level of multitasking each member of the band is doing, the keys player surrounded by more pedalboards than Aiming For Enrike, the bass player with his own compliment in addition to a foot pedal keyboard and the drummer also doing vocal duties.
Bizarrely at one point the stagehand who’s been running around, keeping mic stands upright and adjusting pedals joins the stage behind the band on guitar while wearing an exceptionally furry dog mask. Given the amount of Bristol scene bands I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing, I shouldn’t be surprised anymore but the dog mask is certainly a new one on me. Oh wait it’s not just guitar that said dogface is doing, even a bit of synth shenanigans as well. It’s also not very often I see a drum synth get dumped on the drummer’s lap either, this show has been a brilliant demonstration of technical engineering as much as it has been a music show. I did wonder how long it’d be before something odd went awry and their backing vocals did end up with a weird delay effect on them which was quickly sorted by the resident technical expert.
Nothing like a casual mooning of the audience either by “Poundland Aquaman” apparently, I feel like they’re not quite sure where they were going with that. As we barrel along to the end of the show, this has felt like it’s been over so quickly despite standing at a solid 90-minute set. No strangers to wearing their beliefs on their sleeves either, they make a heartfelt statement about their support for Palestine and how they tirelessly campaign for the ending of arms sales, delivered in true British fashion with a hint of tiredness and exasperation.
Three (well four) incredibly skilled musicians have put on a wonderfully unique and entertaining show that has been every bit as engrossing to listen to as it was to watch them deftly navigate the complex setup they use to deliver it. An atmospheric show drenched in psychedelia and atypical songwriting and melody use, genuinely fantastic to watch.
Now I just need to hope they pop up at ArcTanGent next year so I can get my ears full of this all over again!
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