Sliding in from Co. Kerry tonight come 3-piece instrumental combo Ten Past Seven who are launching their new LP ‘Shut Up Your Face’. Although that title brings to mind Joe Dolce (if you haven’t heard of him, good - forget I mentioned it), thankfully this crew do not indeed, peddle tawdry, novelty holiday hits but instead, deal in high octane, polyrhythmic workouts that are designed to agitate the soul and body.
I must confess to being quite wary before this gig having only heard one track from their website and read a few blurbs. Putting it bluntly, instro-rock is not really my thing. I can certainly dig The Ventures and at a push The Shadows, but bands like Mogwai, GYBE, and The Redneck Manifesto sometimes leave me cold. I recognize that all these bands have made really strong work but after a while their music can come across as slightly humourless and just a little browbeating in nature, to these ears anyway.
But to be fair to 7:10, they are a different kettle of haddock entirely. An extremely tight and fiery guitar-drum-bass unit, my initial impression was one of ‘my god, what are King Crimson doing here?’ as guitarist Rory O’Brien’s angular attack brings to mind ‘Red’-era Robert Fripp and although I’ve never been quite able to figure out if Crimso belong in the Rn’R hall of fame or Jurassic Park, I was willing to give the boys the benefit of the doubt.
And I am glad I did too, for after a while their hyperkineticsm proved infectious as more and more of the audience got into the groove of things and began jumping up-and-down fervently. I approve! Too many bands inspire mopey, head-swinging movements. I much prefer the effervescent, spring-like reaction of the pogo-hop. Visually, the bands focal points are O’Brien’s eyes which manically stare like lighthouse beacons on to the audience below and are impossible to avoid.
And these boys can play. Not to go all muso-ey on you folks, but the rapidly shifting time signatures and turn-on-a dime changes that they pull off tonight are very impressive. This kind of thing takes practice and whilst technical proficiency is no substitute for emotional contact, one has to recognize the amount of work that has gone into fashioning the music on offer here. And there’s no doubt that in Ten Past Seven’s case - it works on both levels, one look around at the smiley, jumpy faces on the dancefloor will tell you that.
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To describe a typical tune is difficult. The general pace is fast with odd moments of quietude, then fast and irregular again… but to be honest you don’t know what will really happen next and that arguably is the band’s greatest strength. Especially in today’s Coldplay/Blunt climate of melodic progressions that are signposted by a distance of about 5000 km. My only tiny, tiny caveat would be that the music doesn’t ‘swing’ enough – in the way that the best of say, Beefheart’s Magic Band, Talking Heads, Funkadelic or Can does. The music here certainly activates your legs but doesn’t quite work its way up to your arse and I would like to hear a bit of non-European influence in the mix just to fuck things up a little more even.
But to give them their dues, their last contributions to the evening are spot-on. Considering that they are from Kerry and that county has a proud heritage of traditional Irish music, the band rightly brings a Bodhrán onstage for an acoustic encore (for those who don’t know, it’s a hand held drum made from goatskin). This works a treat, giving a nice contrast to what has gone before and furthers the impression that this group are no one-trick ponies. On the strength of this performance I would strongly recommend checking this lot out if they are in your vicinity and I am off myself to see if I can get a copy of their album, as it strangely was not available on the night.
They never do things normally in the Kingdom though, do they?
(For CD and tour info, go to http://www.tenpastseven.net/)
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