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| Damo Suzuki, 25 June 2013 by Jim Donnelly |
In my preview I wrote Damo Suzuki’s gig for Idle Fret at
the Heavenly Social was impossible to predict; could be brilliant, could be a disaster. It
turned neither but the pendulum definitely swung in favour of the former.
Damo’s “Sound Carriers” for this sold out night were bands Toy and
Listing Ships. Neither had met, neither had met former Can vocalist Damo, and nothing was prepared.
The bands played simultaneously, facing each other, with Damo in the centre and
improvised their way through a solid 75-minute lump of thick, claustrophobic psychedelia
with Can-like rhythms and synth squiggles whilst Damo added his vocals. It was
difficult to tell in which language, or even if it was a known language, maybe it
was totally improvised sounds, or the sound of a small yelping dog. What was
impressive was how it actually worked and how the musicians instinctively fed off each other. If the promoters hadn’t wrapped it up
they’d still be playing now. Special mention to Toy drummer Charlie Salvidge, he
appeared to be the one propelling it along with such gusto.
It wasn’t something I’d particularly want to listen to
again, even if I were able, but that’s the whole point; it was about
experiencing a unique moment.
It was great to be asked to play a few records early in
the evening. I adopted a scatter-gun approach, everything from Blue Note jazz,
to garage punk, to heavy funk and Rodney Marsh inspired psychedelic football 45s. Luke Insect was
far more organised and came prepared with solely German records, Idle Fret’s Darren
Brooker played a great track ("In Your Mind" by Stray) in his set but the star of the show was, of course,
Andrew Weatherall whose hour of dub and Krautrock ebbed and flowed like one
fluid piece of music. A whole different league to my put-one-record-on-after-another
style.
Best of all, and most importantly, the night raised over
£1000 for Cancer Research UK and MacMillan Cancer Support. Well done everyone.
