Midnight Juggernauts
Cabaret Voltaire (23rd August)
Australian outfit Midnight Juggernauts arrived in Edinburgh as part of the Edge Festival, just one date on their jet-setting autumn tour that will take them from destinations as diverse as Guadalajara, Texas, and well, err, Creamfields in Liverpool.
Their debut album ‘Dystopia’ has received critical acclaim, with their blend of electro –dance-rock creating a truly unique sound that has drawn comparisons with the likes of Daft Punk to David Bowie.
Cabaret Voltaire slowly built up an audience tonight, with a modest crowd in on time to catch support act Dollskabeat. The emerging Scottish singer-producer is the ideal warm-up to our headliners, bringing a disco chic to her stylish electronic tempo.
Dollskabeat has a strangely alluring, almost dominatrix appearance; all leather, shiny shirts and blunt but effortlessly trendy haircut. The look is there – and so is the music. Supported by a drummer and a back-up vocalist, the sound is crisp and infectiously rhythmic – it may lead to involuntary dance manoeuvres if listened to at length. Stand-out track ‘Go Pop’ is irrepressibly 80’s, homage to the decade that embraced the synthesiser with open arms. She offered her own personal recommendation, declaring that she had toured with the Juggernauts before and they ‘blew her away’. Those in attendance weren’t about to disagree.
After what seemed like an atmosphere-building eternity, three shaggy-haired, bearded tramps took to the stage and had the audience in the palm of their hand until the very last note. The drummer? As mad as Bonham or Moon, pounding as maniacally as his limbs would allow. The bass-lines are technically supreme and become the centrepiece of the tracks. The vocals from are a cross between David Byrne when the Talking Heads were at their most excessive, and Bowie during his ‘Let’s Dance’ period.
They play their trump card second song in – it is no exaggeration to label ‘Shadows’ a work of genius. It contains one of the most aggressive, earth-shattering bass riffs ever played, and you cannot help but dance to the drumbeat that wrestles in beside it. The vocal is understated to allow the rest of the track to roam free. It is one of the best songs I’ve heard in a long, long time, and the crowd embraced it openly as the Juggernauts rampaged through with joyous abandon.
Each track is its own little showcase of the band members’ undoubted talent and feel for music, and there is nothing habitual about their playing – you feel if they played again the next night they would mix things up and change their set, just to keep themselves on their toes.
They finish with their most famous hit, ‘Into the Galaxy’, a non-stop electro delight, with a stunning vocal that dominates straight through to the high-pitched chorus. Never has a track had a more apt title – it sounds other-worldly. There is a Grandmaster Flash remix on the 12 inch version – can you get any cooler than that?
Play the CD, and then picture their on-stage persona and you will miss the mark. They resemble more of a heavy rock trio than an electro outfit, and the tracks do have the occasional power riff driving through those drum beats again. It was a hugely impressive performance – I implore you to catch them when they come to the Arches in October.
more Midnight Juggernauts on Flickr
Donny
