PA smaller than I'd seen them with before, without large
subbass kit, and not all that loud but very clean - I was
right in front of the right hand stack for most of the set
and that was just fine.
Elizabeth Fraser was not there at all - they used another
singer who I didn't know but apparently she sang at their
last Finsbury Park gig - she was good. They played mainly
stuff from Mezzanine and they played it very well. It was
very guitarry and kinda moody, as is the album, but
impressive nonetheless. I was a bit concerned by the almost
heavy metal ending. Horace Andy was on fine form and his
more reggaeish numbers were the most danceable. Inertia
Creeps came over very well as did Tear Drop and Angel. They
also played a couple off Protection - KarmaKoma and Spying
Glass (which is one of my faves that I occasionally play on
the Sound System).
They played till about 12 (90 minutes I guess) and then left
a Jungly DJ on stage for another couple of hours - he *was*
good and as the place half cleared and the bar was still
open we had a good dance around - which is just what you
need after a Massive and fairly slow-static gig.
Opinions:
As I said before, this lot not are not Acid Jazz by any
definition I can think of, they are nothing but The Bristol
Sound (for those of you across the Atlantic or the North
Sea) which might include Portishead and Tricky and, arguably
Roni Size (is he really that good - I think there's much
better, less clinical Jazzy D&B around), but they are
undoubtedly good. They, as The Wild Bunch, together with
Adrian Sherwood's OnU Sound System, were what I see as the
roots of the Sound System thing in the UK and the
inspiration for many of the things like this we hear today.
If I'm not mistaken Mezzanine just went to number one UK
album in its first week.
Catch them when you can.
J.
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Julian Evans
AJ Sound System Norwich
Email: j.g.evans@uea.ac.uk
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