I’ve been to lots of gigs that felt like someone just picked 3 or 4 bands out of a hat, then rolled the dice on who should play when. However, a cohesive set of bands can turn a simple gig into a complete and immersive experience, so when a promoter comes along with the ability and inclination to deliver a well-balanced bill, we must celebrate them – i.e. go to their gigs! Dictionary Pudding’s night with Nisennenmondai headlining was an object lesson in how to select acts that complement each other and how to order them.

Brighton-based sound manipulator, Drill Folly, started the night with arresting layers of samples, adding synth chords to create an ambient calm – albeit it at very high volume. DF explores and inverts sounds with an exquisite attention to detail, applying unconventional treatments and presenting them as unique entities. Before the listener knows it, elements have been carefully constructed into a free-flowing composition and time has melted away. Personally, I could have done without the gnarly bass drops, though – but they, just like everything else, served as brushstrokes within the larger picture of the set.

 

Following a fairly major equipment changeover, Yorkshiremen Nope lined up in symmetrical fashion – 2 drumkits facing inwardly onstage, both flanked by guitarists. Their set began with the drummers walking around the kits creating cymbal washes as fragments of dreamy sitar-like guitar were offered, providing snapshots of pretty melody. This gradually built before petering out and giving way to a spacey riff, cuing the drummers to launch into a Neu-like four-to-the-floor Krautrock beat that would propel the song like an express train. As the drummers sat opposite each other, appearing as one another’s mirror, the combination of minimal guitars and the drums’ raw power was compelling – so simple, but so, so effective. With the song now clocking up around 15 minutes and its force beginning to ebb, there was time for one last twist – a re-intro, taking it down to earth, leaving us with the final flourishes of guitar as the song came to the most satisfying of conclusions.

 

There’s no doubting that Nope took us pretty far up with a good old-fashioned muscular performance, so it was right that something with a lighter touch should follow. Nisennenmondai provide exactly that, with brittle guitar loops subtly evolving under taut, eerie rhythms. Repetition certainly is a key ingredient in their sound, but it’s their ability to introduce minimal progressions and variations that help the listener make sense of their offerings. It’s cerebral stuff that needs to be experienced in full to appreciate the specific trip it takes you on. The fact that they have built up a sufficiently sizeable following to take their music to various corners of the world has to be applauded, and I take heart in the fact that there’s an audience out there for music that requires a bit of patience and pondering.

Adam Atkins

Website: wearenisennenmondai.com