Another night, another foray back into the world of gigs. Once again I head across to Manchester, this time to take in the dual delights of Dead Space Chamber Music and HackeDePiciotto. While both acts, as they are, are new to me, Alexander Hacke has long been a musical muse of mine, with his work in, amongst others, Einsturzende Neubaten, the German industrial/low wave group. Settling in for a night of experimentalism, I take a seat at the back of the busy room and await the spectacle to come.
First on, our support act in Dead Space Chamber Music, and what a delightful surprise they are. The three-piece from Bristol combine minimalism, medieval music and experimentalism in generous dollops, mixing a visual aspect into the music to make it appeal to more of the senses. A small handheld mirror, a bleached aimal skull, of possibly a sheep or goat, judging by the shape are used for their visual aspects, while some broken ceramics are used for extra crunch in a sound effect.
The haunting vocals come in four separate languages, a mixture of Latin, Middle English, Welsh and another which escapes me after the unfortunate gap between gig and the writing of this review. There is a heavily Celtic feel to proceedings, which is not unexpected, given both the languages used and the various instruments, at times almost shamanistic between the minimalistic approach to the musical side and the haunting vocal style.
It’s an excellent 55 minute support slot that does them great justice.
On to our headliners then and I feel a great sense of anticipation at finally getting to see someone live whose music I have long admired. What a treat was waiting for me, too.
With Hacke handling guitar, sample, drum and co-vocal duties, the also excellent Danielle DePiciotto handles duties on a variety of instruments, including violin, hurdy gurdy and xylophone, amongst others, while also handling co-vocal duties. You can hear a pin drop from the crowd, with the exception of the raucous applause which greets the end of each track. Hacke comes across as an affable character in addition, introducing certain parts wit either a touch of background to the song or an explication of it, reinforcing the story telling narrative that is not always easy to grasp in such artistic forms of music as what we are presented with tonight.
Between some spoken word parts and Hacke providing some throat singing as yet another sound we get such delights as ‘The Seventh Day’, ‘Meteor’s Reign’ and ‘Journey East’ as they work their way through the set, spellbinding all in the audience, who sway in the midst of it all. The penultimate track of the main set sees us take in ‘The Silver Threshold’, which reminds me so heavily of Hacke’s other work that I’m barely able to contain myself in the bubble the room is enveloped in, where it’s clear how bands such as Rammstein must have picked up influence from his works across the years in their own approach. We get a two song encore to complete a fascinating 90 minute set, bringing an enthralling night of quite different music to a close.
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