Wild Fruit Art Collective
As Sound City continues its set of Emerging new talent gigs, Getintothis’ Lily Corke Butters headed to Buyers Club to check out all the action.
Small groups gathered in Buyers Club, in anticipation for Sound City’s ‘emerging’ acts. The low-level lighting, along with the exposed brickwork gave an indication of the sombre tone of the night. It became apparent that the carefully-selected line up were used to highlight different aspects of the headliners, Wild Fruit Art Collective, style. Each in turn reflecting an area, such as the pained lyrics from Manchester-based solo artist, Nathaniel Scott – known as, The Bear Around Your Neck.
Armed only with a guitar, Scott still managed to create the wall of sound, consisting of a folk/grunge mixture and vocals comparable to Neutral Milk Hotel’s Jeff Mangum. Further into the set, the audience may have felt they were witnessing the self-hypnosis of Scott in his immersive, Wytches-like, sinister chords.
The whole performance seemed to be lined with a recessive anger within Scott, which was echoed in his visceral lyrics and distorted guitar. By the end of the set, it was clear that Scott had persuaded the crowd to step into his web of melodic drone and submerse in it alongside himself.
Next to rock the Buyers Club was four-piece, PLASTIC (not to be confused with the Japanese, New Wave band from the early 80s). Sheer energy was the first thing unleashed onto the audience. The self-proclaimed “stinky fucking rock lords” could easily be the descendants of the original Grunge greats such as Mudhoney. The, still, modestly-filled room had no choice but to get on board with the music, there were even a few headbangers that lead the crowd.
Tindrumm brought about an apparent mood change. The four unsuspectingly normal-looking men offered a contrast to the previous bands, all of whom had generous amounts of hair and alternative clothing. Melodic, “art rock” is the best way to describe their style. Atmospheric songs, alongside vocals which carried Nick Allbrook-like undertones constructed their set. The intensity of the whole band seemed to be channelled up and out through the singer (Ryan Lee’s) voice, creating potentially anthemic tracks.
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The fourth band of the night were Liverpool’s own Samuria Kip. The overall feeling of the band was much more relaxed than those previous, settling the audience down after three brilliant, yet very highly-fuelled, bands. The band aim to “float boats” and they succeeded, with a considerable increase in voluntary dancing in the crowd. Aidan McGuire’s gravelly vocals flowed seamlessly with the funky instrumentals. The songs radiated King Gizzard vibes, but still maintained a definite originality.
After an enduring wait, Wild Fruit Art Collective were finally on. Immediate Birthday Party vibes were emitted off the stage. Their post-punk music absorbed the crowd into a collective feeling of hopelessness and admiration. Their music was almost a combination of all the previous bands, mirroring separate features of each. Chaos increased throughout the set, both from the band and within the crowd, culminating in singer (Jamie Roberts) standing on the drum kit, and, amazingly, retaining his balance for the duration of a song – despite his frantic and enthusiastic movements.
The reaction of “fuck off” when being told it would be their last song, got the audience even more rooted behind the band, and even more disappointed when the excellent, to say the least, set finished. To display one last act of defiance, Roberts played his guitar with a drumstick, leaving drummer (Jake Jones) to drum single-handedly. All the members played tightly, whilst still managing to withhold their own spin on the songs. The night spiralled, under the band’s control, into their collective (pun intended) chaos.
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