The Double
This blog reviews seminal music, and to date, that has comprised of whole albums. Tonight I am going to review an outstanding gig featuring the Double.
If you are reading this you probably know the musicians: Jim White (Dirty Three, Xylouris White, Venom P. Stinger) and Emmett Kelly (Bonny Prince Billy, Ty Segall, The Cairo Gang). Tonight, in The Tote band room we were treated to them playing an unrelenting single piece lasting 45 minutes.
Take a minute to think about that.
A drummer and a guitarist.
One piece.
Forty five minutes.
One chord.
It is either going to happen. Or not.
The band room was packed. They were preluded by Taipan Tiger Girls and Ausmuteants. Two pretty apposite draw cards. Well, TTG were. But so were Ausmuteants - in as much as they twisted the same musical elements as TTG. The Tiger Girls riffed for about 30 minutes on one song. Sometimes the synths were a little quirky; the guitarist played with distortion and a mallet slide to create a permeable wall; the drummer held it down - he was sharp, he was bright and sometimes jazzed it despite being in the back light while the other two musicians took the lime light.
Ausmuteants are the personification of The Tote. Grimy, punk, thrash, synth and airless. Two-minute mongrel songs about nothing much. But that's okay. They were the bastard son before the Double.
The Double started right on 11:00. I have never seen a snare punished like that before. Unrelenting drumming. It must have been hit between 8,000 and 23,000 times depending on how many sticks you're counting. And White did not miss a beat. The right hand would break out in a flourish: sometimes the tom; the crash; the ride. Sometimes the left hand would hold out for a few beats in a great loop before dropping down in perfect time again.
Kelly drives nuance from one chord. It's more than you expect. You can't know how to expect what happens aurally. But like Kelly says, when you hear the same things on repeat you lose track, and the music takes another form.
Folks claim it is music you can meditate to, that it's jazz, it's blues, it's rock minimalism.
At 11:45, right on the mark, they looked at each other and stopped.
The Double remind us of the sonic bombardment we have everyday. They hook into how we manage that and find some kind of centre as we walk around in our own minds, and then they give us the catharsis.
Underestimation. Find your way.
You can get a feel of them on Dawn of the Double here, but it won't translate like it does live. You need those thumping drums, you need Emmett in the lead. But you'll start to know how it works. The best way is to reproduce on your fine stereo at home. And you can, thanks to Kasumuen Records. Show your love here.
If you are reading this you probably know the musicians: Jim White (Dirty Three, Xylouris White, Venom P. Stinger) and Emmett Kelly (Bonny Prince Billy, Ty Segall, The Cairo Gang). Tonight, in The Tote band room we were treated to them playing an unrelenting single piece lasting 45 minutes.
Take a minute to think about that.
A drummer and a guitarist.
One piece.
Forty five minutes.
One chord.
It is either going to happen. Or not.
The band room was packed. They were preluded by Taipan Tiger Girls and Ausmuteants. Two pretty apposite draw cards. Well, TTG were. But so were Ausmuteants - in as much as they twisted the same musical elements as TTG. The Tiger Girls riffed for about 30 minutes on one song. Sometimes the synths were a little quirky; the guitarist played with distortion and a mallet slide to create a permeable wall; the drummer held it down - he was sharp, he was bright and sometimes jazzed it despite being in the back light while the other two musicians took the lime light.
Ausmuteants are the personification of The Tote. Grimy, punk, thrash, synth and airless. Two-minute mongrel songs about nothing much. But that's okay. They were the bastard son before the Double.
The Double started right on 11:00. I have never seen a snare punished like that before. Unrelenting drumming. It must have been hit between 8,000 and 23,000 times depending on how many sticks you're counting. And White did not miss a beat. The right hand would break out in a flourish: sometimes the tom; the crash; the ride. Sometimes the left hand would hold out for a few beats in a great loop before dropping down in perfect time again.
Kelly drives nuance from one chord. It's more than you expect. You can't know how to expect what happens aurally. But like Kelly says, when you hear the same things on repeat you lose track, and the music takes another form.
Folks claim it is music you can meditate to, that it's jazz, it's blues, it's rock minimalism.
At 11:45, right on the mark, they looked at each other and stopped.
The Double remind us of the sonic bombardment we have everyday. They hook into how we manage that and find some kind of centre as we walk around in our own minds, and then they give us the catharsis.
Underestimation. Find your way.
You can get a feel of them on Dawn of the Double here, but it won't translate like it does live. You need those thumping drums, you need Emmett in the lead. But you'll start to know how it works. The best way is to reproduce on your fine stereo at home. And you can, thanks to Kasumuen Records. Show your love here.
Comments
Post a Comment