Another great night put on by the Willikoman Collective. The show was acting as an album launch for Concrete, the debut solo album from Marcus Hamblett which is set for release on 20th April. Marcus is a prolific multi-instrumentalist and has played with the majority of the Willikoman Records artists, Peggy Sue, Willy Mason, Rachael Dadd, Moulettes, Fear of Men, Rozi Plain and Laura Marling to name a few. He is one of Brighton’s finest talents and there is no doubt his debut record is going to be a great listen. Tonight’s special headliner was Stara Rzeka (formally known as Kuba Ziolek). He is already well known in the Polish underground music scene, having featured in a variety of different bands, and is now starting to gather great acclaim outside his homeland. Touring his Cien? Chmury Nad Ukrytym Polem album, which translates as Shadow Clouds Over the Hidden Field, this was sure to be an interesting and enticing performance.

 

Beginning the evening was the Heather Hamblett Duo performing songs off the Concrete album. Thomas Heather had control of a drum kit and Marcus Hamblett played with an assortment of musical instruments including a Doepfer A1 Synthesizer and his guitar with an array of effects. The sound was glorious – light melodic guitar drifted on top of the modulating synths which were delicately disjointed by brilliantly inventive drumming from Thomas whose flailing style reminded me of the great Keith Moon. The first half of the set ventured in an almost organic Tri-Hop territory, being the soundtrack to a happy adventure in a trippy dream, but as it went on it progressively got more twisted and striking. I couldn’t decide what was more impressive; Marcus understanding how to control the mind boggling synthesizers, or Thomas being able to keep up with the every changing sound as well as giving it a new dimension. At one point, the drums made its own backing track through the reverb and delay it created, and when Marcus’s guitar came in the overall sound became dark but still strangely comforting. On the last song, Thomas chucks a handful of drum sticks into the air and onto the drums, opting for the wire brushes for a mellow end to their performance. Both musicians played an interesting and hypnotizing show and I cannot wait to listen to Concrete.

 

Bolide was on next and it was truly an abstract 30 minutes. It was music without rules – no bars, no structure. In the words of my hippy uncle, “Man, that really is some far out shit!”. The instrumental four piece played a variety of bizarre instruments including; tens of cassette tapes of soundscapes, plastic tubing that was connected to a tennor saxophone, op-1 synthesizer and guitars, as well as a drummer playing with forks and whisks, tingsha cymbals, an ohm singing bowl, and loads of other randoms. On their third and final “song” they said they were going to play a new track, which was funny as there seemed to be no order to the music as they all played different tunes going off in four very random directions – but still managed to finish all at the same time. The performance pleased a lot of the audience, but for me it was a little tiring.

 

Stara Rzeka came on stage and sat at a desk which had ten effect pedals on it and various looping pedals bellow. After giving a nice introduction about himself and letting us know a little about the songs he was going to play, he went into his first song, sung in Polish. This didn’t matter as the veracity that comes through in his voice and the way Kuba moulds the sound of his guitar with effects to create a vivid image of the portrayed emotion. The style of songs varied from choral folk melodies to droning black metal, and was based around the looping guitar effects that seemed to take endless shapes. The musical soundscapes Kuba made were mesmerising, eerie and cinematic – some sounded celestial, some felt ethereal, but there was always a powerful dark undertone. The highlight of the set was when he played ‘My Only Child’ (a Nico cover) which featured his strong choir vocals adorned in angelic reverb for a three minutes solo, before bringing in a wash of light swirling guitar atmospherics until he looped in a fierce distorted guitar. This was extremely powerful and effective, almost like feeling the rumble of a jumbo jet flying just meters above you. It was a truly captivating and interesting performance that was also very enjoyable, and had his faithful fans recording the whole show on their mobiles.