Eclectic electric

Above: Henry Homesweet playing at his CD launch party on Friday 18th July in Ipswich.

The evening kicked off with a rousing set by Jack Rundell. Placing his microphone stand in the middle of the dance floor he set about making anyone who walked past him on route to the garden feel decidedly awkward as he wielded his guitar around the room within inches of carefully carried pints. Brow beating all 15 of us who weren't socializing outside into submission, he was warm and funny and extremely enthusiastic. He had even handwritten and photocopied the chorus to his last song to encourage a sing-a-long which several brave souls threw themselves into. This was the most traditional the evening got.

The venue was packed with 17/19 year olds who were only really interested in seeing Henry Homesweet and ElectronicMess and their chiptune nonsense. When both those 'bands' came on, the garden emptied of these young smokers with their iron lungs and dayglo T-shirts and baggy tight jeans (an oxymoron you may think, but no, they manage it somehow). Personally I can't see any longevity to what either HH or EM are doing but who said that should be a criteria when deciding what has merit and what doesn't. My main gripe is that there isn't much of a concept to this music past its lo-fi techno amusement value, but no doubt musick journalists will be raving about it being the next big thing because the kids are down with it, ever desperate not to miss a bandwagon to jump on. And the kids are most certainly down with it.

Despite reservations though, I did enjoy both Henry Homesweet and ElectronicMess although on the night I could be found blabbering in a drunken manner, "where's the fucking hi and lo end", it all being mid range computer bleep gabba with the odd bit of atmospheric synthesizer washes thrown in for 'lighter in the air' effect. More glitch and sonic overload would satisfy my personal tastes, haven't these people heard of Aphex Twin? Trouble is, 17 year olds today are so used to listening to music through shit speakers; either mobile phone or on computers, that I'm sure they don't realise there's a whole range of frequencies they've never experienced. Pindown tried to put this right when we took to the stage, instantly clearing the venue into the garden excepting the oldies that had turned up to see us. About 20 in number, they clapped after every song just like a proper audience. 6 songs later and my voice was officially fucked but the projections seemed to work which was a relief as I had only got them together the previous week. And despite my quip that I wasn't going to do any between song banter, Jason and I even joked on stage about forgetting the lino for the breakdancing section of the set which created mild amusement. I think the comedy routine is a little way off perfecting as yet although some would say the idea of two balding 40 year olds playing shouty sampled electronic industrial noise is a bit of a joke in itself.

Thanks to Roki, the PA guy and those that turned up to see us. See you in another 8 years! Also a big thanks to Mr Technical Thug for the lend of the projector and for supplying some footage for me to butcher.

For Jason's take on the night see the Pindown MySpace blog.
For a copy of Palm Trance, Henry Homesweet's CD, see Antigen Records MySpace page.