David Thomas Broughton, 7 Hertz and Men Diamler!
An amazing line up of shape-shifting, boundary warping alt. folk artistes.
Here's a review of a gig in Leeds attended and then written about by our very own Rob Nichols. Rob recommended that we bring David Thomas Broughton and 7 Hertz to Eaglescliffe, so we have done. And we've added the excellent Men Diamler. Phewee!!
Over to Rob:
I’VE been bursting to tell you about a quite amazing night I experienced recently just outside our area in Leeds.
It was a busy Friday evening in the city centre as I marched through the Victorian Arcades and pedestrianised shopping streets. My destination was the magnificent Grade 1 listed 18th century Holy Trinity Church. An amazing venue [Similarly amazing to The Waiting Room in Eaglescliffe, but in a different way] sic. for an amazing gig.
Inside we sat in the wooden pews between the plain white walls of the Georgian church while quartet 7HERTZ entertained us with their fractured chamber music, improvisation and beyond.
The two violinists weave away with the clarinet as the double bass player hammers away at his strings. It’s a music that draws on folk, jazz, classical and even punk I would hazard to guess.
A sea shanty invokes history and provokes thought as violinist and vocalist Lucy dedicates it to the arsonist who has all but destroyed the Cutty Sark of her ancestors. There might be a lot of freedom of expression but there is structure, melody and texture and it’s really, really engrossing stuff.
After complimentary tea, cookies and cakes (leave a donation in the box) the musicians shuffle their pack and we are treated to the full force of wind instruments in SWINEPIPE.
There is something primal about those clarinets. At one point they reach a crescendo that resonates off the walls and up to the very rafters. It’s as if even the tiny atoms in the bodies of the audience have been set into motion. Just as it could become unbearable Swinepipe step sideways with some jazz. But this is jazz that can never be said to be “nice.”
So to DAVID THOMAS BROUGHTON, one man with a voice, a guitar, a plastic bag and a noisy chair leg. Oh and a sampler.
The bearded figure shuffled back and forward up the nave of the church projecting his vocals to the heavens. He looped his vocals into a choir of angels, his guitar parts into a dysfunctional orchestra together with the jarring effects of a scraping chair leg and rustle of a plastic bag. Everything goes into the pot. Broughton is experimenting with sounds of all types. Testing the acoustic possibilities of the building.
As Broughton’s choir of monks chant in the choir of the church there is a sudden rush of strings to the left and right as two of 7Hertz march up the north and south aisle of the church. A clarinet breaks free near the pulpit and close to the altar the 7Hertz double bass is plucking a heartbeat for the music.
It’s a privilege to be seated bang in the middle of such a magical musical journey. The gig builds towards an epic climax as Broughton lays down layer upon layer of vocals and guitar.
Bang it’s over and there is a thunderous standing ovation from the packed pews. It has been a truly incredible night.
Howzabout that? Rob really liked these guys - maybe you will too.
And
"Men Diamler is a young man with a cult reputation in the South West who will not be tamed by the powers that be, reconfiguring a English/Welsh soul music through woozy operatics and wild and weird song/stories. Sweet and darkness have never sounded so close or so intense in such performer. Despite his tender age he is a channel for old thyme ways - footstompin’ blues, two string serenades, backwoods drinking hollers, horse play and pagan folk all get exorcised. Psychosis never sounded this good and people clap" Qujunktions
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