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Opening this rather lovely free show, for the launch of Stanton's rather lovely ‘Walking Songs’ album. (Stanton were of course excellent but I only just reviewed them the other month!) So what to make of the change? Well, I think it would be fair to say that former Mahonie, 2nd bass player (and no they didn't sound like Ned's Atomic Dustbin), Hywell Dinsdale was something of a wild card, his departure (as well as that of other bass player Kev' Penney , now guitaring in Seafood, who was stood next to me for the whole show saying "this is so wierd") has led to a more delineated approach - at least to my ears anyway.
New bassist and guitarist, Duncan and Tony, play clean and tight where previously there was often craziness. The band seems to be following on it's often hinted at leanings, to the krautrock of Can, Neu! etc. This was always evident in the rhythm section previously but now the whole band seems to be humming that Tune. The first two new tunes they play are slow building quiet to loud numbers, yet even these aren't loose jazzy or jammed affairs, it's clear now that structure is the heart of the Billy M' machine. Even when they wig out on ‘Dusseldorf’ (a highlight of their ‘What Becomes Before’ album) it's like disco Billy Mahonie, with a machine like precision. Tony does get to do some crazy sonics on the encore (another new song) which brings to mind the funk of US acts like Outhud, but clearly Billy Mahonie, the shambolic and sporadically brilliant post rock grab bag, has been replaced by this sleek new chap. Ian Unpeeled (the zine that covers the John Peel shows, info from shane@unpeeled.freeserve.co.uk) |