Review:
'CARBON MANUAL/ ROSWELL, STERLING/ MILLER, TRENT'
'London, Farringdon, The Betsey Trotwood, 6th Sept'
- Genre: 'Punk/New Wave'
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Our Rating:
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This was one of the irregular nights hosted by Clerkenville East-West and for this show the first two acts are upstairs and the headliners are down in the cellar bar.
So we start the evening upstairs for STERLING ROSWELL (or Rosco) for whom this is the first of two solo shows he's playing in town this evening ahead of a couple of full band shows opening for Sean Lennon and The Saints as part of the ongoing The Call Of The Cosmos tour. Sterling's new album is being re-issued by Fire records on October 6th.
So Rosco is set up one man band-style on the small stage surrounded by several keyboards; a bass drum, Tambourine, Tibetan bells, guitar and other assorted gadgets and pedals almost Mad Professor-style as he coaxes the machines into life with buzzing sounds and distorted drones as he uses what look like guitar picks to jam certain keys down for sustained noises and twiddles the knobs into a miasma of sound that is the Island Of Ether Drones that create a platform for Rosco to dive off.
After that intro Give Peace Another Chance almost sounds like straight folktronica with the additional background keyboard drones accentuating the strummed guitar on this old single of Rosco's. Things then take back off for squalling space on Venus Honey, with some amazing odd sounds coming from the machines as the vocals slice through the noises. Things are then brought down to a nice soundtrack-style chill out for a cover of The Traits' Nobody loves The Hulk which sees several different keys jammed down to almost give them the John Cage prepared piano sound.
Donovan's Brain is next, with one of those repeating Bo Diddley riffs surrounded by the odd squealing noises and more drones as Rosco pays tribute to Roky Erikson with a song that channels as much of the soul of Roky as Clerkenwell can handle. Like Wild Horses is almost a come down song after that; a bit mellower with a nice repeating lyric that's followed by a deeply frazzled cover of I'm Set Free by The Velvet Underground that is almost drowning in drones and otherworldly tones.
The set comes to a close with Heartbeat's distorted noises bleeding into a messy and slightly chaotic version of Call Of The Cosmos that comes to a close without seeming like it had ended as the machines still continued droning and humming for a bit. Not, admittedly, as long as they would have with Spacemen 3 but the effect was similar at the end of a cool and interesting set.
Next on was TRENT MILLER who was performing as a duo with Barbra Bartz on violin to accompany his acoustic guitar and Harmonica. Now for as dark and normally pale singer as Trent is he looks rather tanned at the moment. Fear not, though, this isn't a set of happy clappy tunes and it kicks off with the dark twisted tale that is All These Violent years off his latest album Burnt Offerings. He is in fine form and Barbara Bartz violin is a good foil to add just enough colour to the songs. Hearts On A Wire may seem like it's just drifted away but it also pulls you in to needing to hear all the lyrics.
His recent single Lupita Dream On is next and this is Trent doing his very best to channel Gene Clark at his most dolorous and pretty much succeeding. Your Black Heart keeps us in the darkest recesses of Trent's mind and no matter how much he complains that Barbra wants to play the fast songs there is nothing fast about any of these tracks; much more a slow descent into a morass of feelings and the recriminations of the pain caused by the owner of the black heart.
Pictures From A different World lightens things a tiny bit with some cool pizzicato from Barbra so you're now only contemplating suicide rather than committing it. Then, there's a dip back to Welcome To Inferno Valley for a very cool version of Fear Of Flying that is just fragile enough to make us feel angsty at the very thought of getting on a plane let alone having to get through all the security checks.
Cold Ashes takes us into the dark of the night and leaves us wondering if we will see the light again. But well it also just leaves time for a quick visit to The Last Chance Motel: a place I don't think any of us want to end up, but it's good to hear this song live again and it works really well in this setting.
Then it's time to go down into the cellar where Jeremy Gluck has been mixing up the medicine by the banks of the River Fleet ready to show that his CARBON MANUAL has all the best recipes.
Now it's nearly 30 years since I first saw Jeremy Gluck playing with Rowland S Howard and Nikki Sudden et al and I think this is the second time I've seen him this millennium but certainly the first time I've seen The Carbon Manual who are one of the bands featured on the excellent 'Marty Thau Presents Red Star Variations' album.
So The Carbon Manual are a 3 piece, with Cliff Gee on Bass and Iain Weir on Guitar and machines to accompany Jeremy Gluck on vocals. Well, from the off, The Carbon Manual are confrontational and in our faces, well quite literally as Jeremy strides out into the audience while reciting the lyrics to Winter Begins as he appears to be haunted by a handsome ghost and the machines are providing sparse drum beats in a very early goth style like the first couple of Sisters of Mercy singles or something like Das Ich, while Cliff's bass really propels the band along and Jeremy's style makes this sound like one of those Giorno Poetry systems albums.
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That I Would Arrive At Your Door sees Jeremy bellowing at the ground as if he thinks he can get the River Fleet to swallow us all up while Ian's guitar wails and creates a backdrop for the continued mantra-like poetry. Why does he feel so Empty at the moment? The cellar is still packed but that bass is insistent and nagging away at us and now the machines have combined with Jeremy to make this sound a lot like Strings Of Consciousness crossed with Tuxedomoon in some sort of dystopian nirvana; compelling and threatening.
He seems very happy that we aren't clapping between numbers as he introduces Undarkened She Shines: a real twisted piece that musically is a little bit lighter like the slower bits of the Psychedelic Furs but shot through with a very propulsive bass riff holding all of the guitar's wild attack in some sort of check; even if the words could almost have been a re-write of something on Burroughs' Call Me Burroughs album.
I Know, I think, was the first piece that saw Jeremy not only on the floor but crawling over it out into the audience and scaring away a few of the less hardy souls although it easily could have been the twisted guitar and minimal drum machine that was doing that. Either way, the audience by this point had actually decided to clap every once in a while mainly ironically. But well, Jeremy doesn't like this and wanted us to stop! How dare an audience clap his work - the very thought of it!
Was Snow about the weather or another kind of snow? It was difficult to tell, but the guitar was creating its own blizzard of sorts as the tale unfolded and we tried to keep out of Jeremy's way as he barged through the audience once more as he attempted to Break Through. A terrifying thought as if he broke through to the glorified sewer of the River Fleet we would all be engulfed by rats and sewage rather than finding a solution to the human condition he was calling for.
Turned My Back on Myself seemed to be the real room-clearer. No idea why as it didn't sound that different but it had thinned out somewhat just as they got the band's inner groove going and In That Dream kept us moving and grooving with them as the words reminded me a bit of something by Kenward Elmslie kind of crossed with some eastern mysticism: a theme further explored on Ice Sleep during which the cellar filled back up a bit much to the band's bemusement as they seemed happy to have room clearing abilities.
They came to some kind of a climax or crescendo with the final two pieces. When I Am Memory saw Jeremy crawling all over the floor and howling into it in a yoga pose as the guitar really ripped out into a solo over the ever insistent bass and drum machine combo before the closing drama of I Want To Continue To Burn attempted to immolate all of us left in the cellar.
It was mesmerizing and a little bit frightening and they were a little gobsmacked that any of us dared to want an encore that was actually more a half-hearted ask for any requests; all of which were either refused or (in the case of Surrender and Dream Baby Dream) given a few bars and then that was that it. A fitting end to a really interesting night out.
All three bands on this bill are well worth seeing if they play anywhere near you.
Fire Records online
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author: simonovitch
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The Carbon Manual
Trent Miller
Sterling Roswell
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