Turning out was a last minute decision, not least of all because my ears were still ringing from Dinosaur Jr’s show in Leeds two nights before, but the compelling lineup suggested it would be worth the effort. While I’m indifferent to Grammatics, I’d seriously dug This Et Al, and as Department M feature former members of these two bands, I figured it was recommendation enough.
I arrived a little way into Worms’ set, and was suitably impressed. They’re young – depressingly so, with college kids and parents packing out the space in front of the stage during their set – but their grungy guitar-led alt rock is played with conviction, they sound good and look the part, too.
Muttley’s set’s evolved in the month or so since I last caught him playing, and the overall impression is that he’s becoming more assured. The vintage drum machine thumps away crisply beneath endless washes of layered guitar, and somewhere, half hidden amidst the tremulous wall of noise he conjures from the smoke-streaked stage, are some beautiful songs.
York’s finest, Honeytone Cody, are tonight’s main support. Their set-list might not change much, but nor does the quality of their performances, which are never less than superlative. The powerhouse percussive assault is as precise as ever, providing an explosive backdrop to Elle Nelson’s rumbling bass and brother Elliot’s guitar from which he sculpts sheets of sound by various innovative means. It all culminates in the chilling ‘Witch Hunt’, and already I feel like I’ve had my money’s worth.
In a way, it’s perhaps as well. It’s not that Department M are bad, because they’re far from it. In fact, they’re stunningly slick and radiate quality. But that’s part of the problem. The stage is set with a row of three synthesizers at the front. And while live drums keep time and bass and guitar are used occasionally, theirs is very much a synth-driven sound. Nothing wrong with that, and the songs are as meticulously penned as they are performed.
|
But on seeing the sea of synths I can’t help but think of the ‘hipster’ band in The Grand Spectacular’s ‘Being a Dickhead’s Cool’. It wasn’t so long ago that you’d rarely hear the words ‘eighties pop’ without them being preceded by ‘cheesy’. But now irony’s dead and the decade is being lovingly recreated under the ‘retro’ tag by people who weren’t even born by the time it ended.
Owen Brinley cuts a dash in his knee-length coat, skinny jeans and oversized headphones and cultivates a cool aloofness becoming of the glassy-smooth finish of the music. It’s hard to fault him or the rest of the band for their execution. But because electro is all about the sheen, it’s difficult to make a real connection, to get beneath the surface to ascertain if there are greater depths or if it’s all a reflection. Department M certainly deliver a studious take on the style, and I did enjoy their set a great deal, but once I was done marvelling at their polished performance, the cynic in me began to ask if it wasn’t all a little too contrived. Somewhere in the tiny territory between stylish and excessively stylised, art and artifice, exist Department M. Whether or not that’s an entirely good thing, I’m yet to decide, but they were certainly entertaining.
|
