Live - Asobi Seksu

Asobi Seksu
ABC2 Glasgow
Saturday 14th February 2009


Yeah yeah, I remember Asobi Seksu when they were a goth band, obviously. Although between you and me, I only acquired their two albums last summer, thanks to a random shoegaze tip-off. I can't say I get random shoegaze tip-offs often, but in hindsight, we were in the pub waiting for it to be fashionably late enough to strut around to a My Bloody Valentine gig. If ever you were going to get a random shoegaze tip-off, you'd like to think it was going to be then.

I've been deeply ensconced in their second album, Citrus, ever since. I was gutted that "logistical challenges" meant I could only catch the arse-end of their Ladytron support set just before Christmas. It was the most amazing arse-end I’ve ever had the good fortune to hear, so I was looking forward to this - I would have been banging on the door waiting for the place to open, if I hadn’t had gone for a quick pint or three earlier in the evening. Damn this fashionable lateness!

The band shuffled onstage with an almost alarming lack of ceremony, collected their thoughts, and ploughed headlong into Sing Tomorrow's Praise, from the forthcoming album Hush. In next to no time, it was apparent all was not well - Yuki Chikudate, Asobi Seksu's achingly cool focal point held the front of the stage with reassuringly aching coolness, but whatever was coming out of her mouth was lost amongst the onslaught of the band's particular translation of the Shoegazing Handbook. Soon after, the PA decided to develop a bout of flatulence, which ever so slightly took away from the beauty of what they were trying to craft in front of us. Yuki's vocals seemed to return for Strawberries, but then they were gone again by the next song, and so it went on until Pink Cloud Tracing Paper near the end of the set.

I say slightly took away, for if you squinted your ears slightly as to blur the distractions, you could hear how magical Asobi Seksu were. There's an aural assault which is slightly reminiscent of My Bloody Valentine, but it’s less about grooves and volume, more about "proper" songs (as my dad would call them) played with ferocious zeal. The real tragedy in losing Yuki's vocals in the mix is not the forfeiture of any lyrical content - the lyrics are largely unintelligible anyway - but the loss of the most distinctive and melodious instrument the band possess. Her angelic tones are a joy, and a perfect foil for the high octane backline. If there’s one downside to their proficiency live, it’s that it makes their recorded material seem slightly overproduced. Which is isn’t, I’m just trying to find a negative needle in a stack of positive hay. It’s a thankless task with Asobi Seksu.

Asobi Seksu on MySpace

6x7 2:Beck - Chemtrails

I've always had a bit of a funny relationship with Beck. Not him personally, I hardly know the lad - it's his music. My earliest memory of him is when he appeared on Top Of The Pops performing his first hit Loser, with a backing band of old aged pensioners. I was really taken aback by this, but I didn't bother buying the single for some unknown reason, never mind the album, Odelay. I'd bought myself some specialist music-snob headphones in the mid 1990s, which blocked out all music that didn't wear a Fred Perry polo shirt and desert boots (I blame the video for Blur's Chemical World personally), so it took me until hearing The New Pollution at Liquidation in Liverpool to realise Beck was a complete genius. I still wasn't moved enough to actually hand over any pretty green for his recorded material though. Even as late as last year, although you could have played me Tropicalia and I'd be transported back to late 1998; Sexx Laws and I'd party like it was 1999 - I'd be no closer to owning one of his albums than I would be owning a U2 album, And I definitely wouldn't have classed myself as a Beck fan.

Chemtrails stopped me in my tracks. It's so wonderfully dark and intense for what is essentially a pop song, switching with ease between sparse verses and throbbing choruses, all wrapped up with an ethereal production which gives it an almost chilling quality. I was so impressed; I bought the album, probably due to being momentarily possessed by the ghost of Victor Kiam. Modern Guilt is a fantastic album too, in a mangled-collection-of-disparate-entities kind of way. Sometimes albums are just better like that, it's like listening to a compilation tape. I'm going to start getting the rest of his albums soon. I'm a Beck fan, after all.

I can't find an official promo video for the song, so here it is with some pretentious guff over the top...

6x7 1:Pete & The Pirates - Mr. Understanding

Writing about what BBC 6Music turned me on to in 2008 proved a bit more of a herculean task than I’d first envisaged. Being a firm believer of "less, but more often", I’m going to post them a song at a time, before the internet becomes obsolete. As there is seven of them, and I discovered them all on BBC 6Music, I'm going to call this thread 6x7. First up, it's Pete & The Pirates...

In the past year I have listened to this song more than any other, but I still don't know why. This time last year I had this song on repeat in the car pretty much every morning on the way to work, belting out the lyrics at the top of my voice, and I'm still listening to it quite a bit now. It's probably because it reminds me of halcyon days, what with the cod-Supergrass Britpop stylings - something which seems decidedly out of fashion these days. That and the fact it is bass led, which is something I always appreciate (unless Sting's involved). I always think it's hard to dominate this type of song with the bass unless the bass player is being a virtuoso twat who hasn't heard of the phrase "less is more". It's all quite simple in Mr. Understanding, but very, very effective.

I've had the album for months, but only started getting into it since just before Christmas. At first I thought it was a load of old cock, being cod-Supergrass and all. But following a subconscious listen round my friend's house one night, helped by some rather nice Rioja, I found the melodies of several songs getting lodged in my brain and causing me to wake up in a cold sweat on more than one occasion the following week. Now, after dozens of listens, I'm more than converted. Knots has become my theme for February 2009, like Mr. Understanding was for February 2008, and at that rate, I should be okay for February themes well into my forties. I only wish I'd gone to see them when I got offered some tickets last year. What a pisser...