KING CREOSOTE & KC-10
Melancholic fun, perfect for a summer evening, for this reviewer at least.
Epic
On a very hot summer Sunday, after an early start and a busy day in the sun, I must confess that I am a little reluctant to drag my tired ol’ carcass down to Epic for what I fear will be an evening of melancholic, if not downright dour, acoustic singer-songwriter shenanigans. Having seem King Creosote previously (with Jon Hopkins at the Arts Centre and on the Astronaut Meets Appleman tour at - the much missed - OPEN) I should’ve known better.
The evening starts with subsonic drones and rumbles playing through the PA whilst footage of someone writing, scribbling, drawing and drinking tea is projected on to the backdrop. It is strangely compelling and I would have like the sounds to be a touch louder (but, as a fan of Harry Sword’s excellent book ‘Monolithic Undertow’, I do like my drones and rumbles).
The openers are KY-10, who are in fact Keny Drew (electronic gizmos and live percusion), Des Lawson (keys) and Kenny (King Creosote) Anderson (keys, more electronic gizmos and melodica), who are also this evening’s version of King Creosote’s band. Indeed, Anderson introduces KY-10 by saying that they have got to the stage where they can support themselves... As well as the live instrumentation, the music is based around samples, tape loops, drum machines and pre-recorded spoken word. The screen shows the dialogue as it is spoken over a mix of psychedelic patterns, text, illustrations, jellyfish and what appear to be family holiday photos and magazine adverts. I am sure it all made sense to anyone familiar with the KY-10 art installations and album. As a newcomer, I found it experimental (in a good way), immersive and strangely beautiful and compelling.
After a short break and more drones and rumbles, plus what sounds to me (and I am almost certainly wrong) ambient-with-drum machines remixes of King Creosote tracks, it is time for the main event...
Last time I saw King Creosote, it was a full band performance and the band looked like they may have raided the 70s glam-rock section of a particularly rock ‘n’ roll Oxfam. There was a silver wig and Anderson had glitter on his face, for crying out loud. Tonight can’t match that visually but equals if not beats it sonically (at least in part because Epic has a much better sound than OPEN ever did, however much I may miss OPEN).
Of course, this being King Creosote, the music is not going to be banging, uplifting summer toons. Yes, it is melancholy but it can also be uplifting. Opener Aurora Boring Alias includes what I can only describe as huge washes of sound. Melin Wynt - my fave Creosote song - sounds bloody magnificent. The Penny Drops reminds me Hüsker Dü’s Never Talking To You Again in a way that I was very much not expecting. HMS Ginafore’s The Hare and the Tortoise and King Creosote & Jon Hopkins’ Bats In The Attic are both very welcome additions to the set and bloody good songs.
Anderson was in fine - funny, entertaining - form between songs. Lawson’s tales of Blantyre were darkly humorous and could’ve been describing many a village or market town in Norfolk (or even Anglia Square, for that matter) and came over like a Mark Steel’s In Town with a Lanarkshire accent.
So, yeah, it may not have been an evening of summer pop bangers but it was a damned fine evening. And anyway, my favourite summer song is Arab Strap’s The First Big Weekend, for fuck’s sake.
