The joys of summer and simplicity find Getintothis Matthew Eland in most agreeable mood in The Kazimier and The Masque Theatre.
Ganglians arrive in The Kazimier writhed in reverb. Individually, the instruments sound conspicuously tinny, but together they combine into a wall of magic hour fuzz and feedback.
They’ve brought some of the Californian climate over along with their laid back lo-fi, and no two songs sound the same.
They switch from the heartbreakingly delicate to a maritime stomp without losing their essence, the sum of their parts.
Imagine the Beach Boys playing on an old cassette tape that’s been on the bleached out promenade for too long, at the exact point before the songs are lost to the drone of salt and sand.
Puzzle are just lovely. They don’t do anything fancy, just pick out summery saline guitar lines while the vocals soar out against the low end.
Some of their tunes, it could be said, sound the same, and it’s debatable whether the drummer has listened to them properly before tonight.
But there’s a strange, understated confidence here. Even their mistakes, which they exchange wry smiles over, sound solid, such is the clean, clear power that they perform with.
Perfect seasonal pop for an itchy, sunburnt evening.
We Walk In Straight Lines don’t fare as well. A long gap in the set, owing to a broken microphone, robs them of some momentum.
But there’s some real depth here, what with the recent addition of a synth player and a nice melodeon solo, which totally justifies the lengthy gap in the middle.
When they slow down and let some air in between the notes it elevates them from the legacy of their influences – particularly late 70s punk – and sends them on some unexpected tangents.
