So another gig at KTWWH where the audience brought by the support threatens to outnumber that of the headliners, this time Without Aeroplanes, a west of Scotland combo bowing out after a couple of years. Didn’t see second support Israelis at all but the Aeroplanes were very good, playing five or six songs of fairly Mogwai-influenced post-rock, no vocals but screaming guitars, interesting time signatures and some serious rocking out – no particular reason given for their retirement (most of the five-piece looked under 20!) but hopefully the various members will go on to bigger and better things as there is clearly some talent there.
North Altantic Oscillation are based in Edinburgh, promoting their second album Fog Electric, this gig postponed from May or thereabouts. Betty saw them at the same venue, with about the same size of crowd (i.e. around half full), around the same time last year – in other words, are they treading water… well are they?
Hard to say – I understand they played at gig back in May at the Queens Hall, Edinburgh, so that’s a bigger venue, and other autumn dates include dates in continental Europe. The second album is I think more of the same as debut Grappling Hooks, a heady mix of electronica melodies, intelligent but rather obscure lyrics and major instrumental wig-outs.
Live, the sound is a bit more visceral, lead vocalist Sam grinding out guitar solos in between the soaring keyboards and vocals, and some of the Fog Electric numbers (including current single ‘Savage with Barometer’) give a bit more variety to the sound. It’s odd chord changes, proggy intros and outros but a bit of a lack of stage presence or connection with the audience; a shame as they do plough their own original furrow somewhere between M83 and the late, great Beta Band, and it’s no surprise that the recent album was produced by a guy who has produced Super Furry Animals in the past, Tony Doogan.
Some seriously good live drums and bass at times from the live lineup, but I think they are just too polite for their own good – an encore: “well okay, we’ll do one more if that’s ok” – again as Betty usually says, some film soundtrack or TV series might bring them to fame but for the time being they are somewhere in the North Atlantic, treading the waves..