This was the launch show for The Oscillation's fourth album Monographic. Support was provided by the Sterling Roswell band which for the most part was actually Sterling Roswell solo but it was yet another great night brought to us by the nice folks at Baba Yaga's hut.
Sterling had an accident about a week before the gig and was walking with the aid of a stick but being an old trouper had decided to play the show anyway. It's a warm of sorts for his upcoming tour opening for Jim Jones. This also meant that he couldn't carry as much equipment as usual so this was a far more stripped back set with - for the most part - just solo electric guitar with very few effects indeed.
The set opened with a nice laid back version of I feel So Fine which seemed ironic in the situation as Sterling looked to be in a fair bit of pain. Venus Honey Dew was missing the wall of noise and effects that it's been encased in at most of the gigs I've seen Sterling him the last year or two which meant the lyrics were far clearer, but it wasn't trippy at all.
Next up was a slow song about the Love I Find that sort of worked but I was waiting for lift off to the stratosphere and the promise of band members appearing onstage to fuel that flight. However, Give Peace Another Chance works perfectly well in stripped back form and the emphasis on the lyrics in these strangest of times is no bad thing.
Everybody Loves The Hulk, however, felt like it was missing the reverb and immense enveloping sound he creates with his band or with his full range of gadgets, so no matter how impassioned the vocals were it lacked a bit of the oomph it normally has. The song that followed about the Moon was a touch slight and in need of more power.
That finally arrived when Martin Langshaw (ex-The Perfect Disaster) joined Sterling on drums and suddenly we had lift off to the stars and beyond on a magnificent version of Like Wild Horses that really got the place going. They were then joined by Claire Harrison on analogue synth for Atom Brain Monster that was a colossal assault on our brains and the idiots running our government. It was acid fried madness of the highest order and went down a storm. A perfect way to end a set that only left me wishing this had been a full band affair from the off.
After the break it was time for The Oscillation who certainly sound like you may have imagined them to sound. I remember being introduced to Demian Costellanos some time ago and promising I'd see his band before promptly forgetting who he said he played with. Well now I know.
They opened with Future: a great slab of spaced-out drone rock with repeating riffs and parts that seem to build and build while Demian intones the lyrics like he is trying to sound like John Lydon in the early days of PIL, only backed by a band who are a cross between Silver Apples and Spiritualized.
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Monographic was an even more monumental sound and by this point I was beginning to be transfixed by Valentina Magaletti's powerhouse drumming. It seemed to anchor everything they played. Respond was a transcendental revolving brew to a dissolving relationship as Demian intones that you respond in Silence. The silent treatment has never been played out to such immense volume before and it was great.
The sheer zeal with which Valentina attacked her drums on Lonely People was brilliant and almost overshadowed what was happening on the bass and synths, which meant that I was watching the drummer almost as much as the brilliant graphics they played beneath. Take Us To The Moon was a real flight of space age rock that built and built and had a couple of good slow parts in the midst of the sonic maelstrom they had created.
Birdman started out fairly quietly before building to this incredible sonic stew that took us on a real flight like the Birdman was trying to keep up with a migrating flock as the flew high above the ocean. It was incredibly good.
They closed the set with the monumental Descent, played in what seemed like three parts which slowly built and built and then just dissolved back to almost nothing as Demian went on about your vicious state so that it almost became like a modern day Sister Ray or Transparent Radiation; at times intricate and at times just mind-blowing space-rock. A brilliant end to a great set.
Of course the packed crowed went nuts for an encore and as they band had never really allowed them to applaud properly through the set it was good to hear just how well they had actually gone down. The encore opened as if they were going to play a cover of Che that soon mutated into Let It Be The End. Another cracking space rock drone miasma of noise.
They then closed the show with No Place which had plenty more powerhouse drumming and drones from the synths and bass and Demian's slightly disembodied vocals. It was a great end and when the drummer said thanks at the end it made clear just how much echo and reverb the vocals were drowned in. But that was undoubtedly a good thing and if you get the chance to see The Oscillation live they are well worth the effort.
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