Reports of the demise of Edinburgh’s gig scene are, it seems, premature and unfounded. Well, judging by the 200 souls crammed into the Voodoo Room anyway. The venue does, it’s said, attract decent regular crowds, but nothing like this, surely.
Perhaps, of course, it’s down to the quality of the headliner, or his like-minded support acts. Local electronic beats duo Keser open, and similarly it’s Funkspiel who immediately precede the German electronic wizard. The Edinburgh trio are something of a revelation, belying the ‘funk’ in their name but still hammering out some impressive beats which draw on snippets of all the best bits of the Go Team, Kraftwerk and Mogwai, while putting their own catchy slant on these.
By way of contrast to the lively setup, Berliner (not a doughnut, language fans) Schnauss sits impassively in front of an array of electronic equipment, lit by the glow of a PC screen and by the rather engrossing projections. It’s a ‘live’ set in the sense that it’s not a DJ set, but the all-electronic setup perhaps reflects his newer material, less shoegazey or indeed soundscapey and more in debt to the alt.dance scene. For those of us unfamiliar to his back catalogue the elements of the set merge seamlessly into one-another - the unmiked Schnauss’s only communication with the audience being a mouthed ‘thankyou’ at the end of the set - but the visitors to this sonic cathedral offer a response worthy of a second coming. Whether they are to be regulars at future events remains to be seen.
more Ulrich Schnauss photos on Flickr
and some of Funkspeil