First time in the Glad for a wee while, for a sold-out show with the room already filling up when Dundee’s Cat’s Cradle took the stage for a short but rather wonderful set.
A female/male duo (Joe and Sam), they used guitar/bass/keyboards and other percussion effects to conjour up a heady brew of spooky noise, accompanied by a gloriously unsettling loop of visual imagery which you wouldn’t want to view while having yer tea, let’s put it that way… Along with some definite goth/shoegaze influences, at their less scary moments there were some shades of Cocteau Twins and there was a maturity in the songwriting that marks them apart from a million other “up and coming” bands. There is at least one track out (‘Slowly Crawling Towards Nothing’, which the imagery at the gig was shot for) and more plans for 2024 – well worth checking them out!
Man of Moon have done a couple of things since lockdown (including a support from frontman Chris for The Twilight Sad at a charity gig) and this was the first time BM had seen them since Ian (Pictish Trail/younameit) was installed as Chris’ foil on drums. There is a new album in the can and this was the first chance for most of the audience to hear tracks from it, which they interspersed with older material.
The classic drums at one side, guitars at the other side was deployed along with some fresh visual reels. The music built up nicely and the two players are a lethal combination of melody and brute force – Ian used some electronic percussion/pads but mostly just hit stuff for all he was worth, while the usual Chris combination of melodic lines, enigmatic lyrics and howling feedback worked a treat. Among others, they played some of the first songs Chris recorded, plus audience favourite ‘The Road’. It is fair to say that MoM are back baby, and BM looks forward to more extensive outings around the time of the album release, hopefully during 2024.
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