First up, big apologies to HORSKH as I ended up missing your set. Sadly I was hit by a whopping double whammy of football AND Justin Bieber traffic, who was performing at the Arena in town. It took me far longer than planned to arrive at Sound Control in Manchester. But go check out their music, very Industrial sounding Electronic duo!
Texan born GosT (aka Baalberith) is just gearing up for the release of his second full length album "Non Paradisi" on the Finnish home of Synthwave and Extreme music, Blood Music. As the lights went low and the theme song from The Omen started playing, the skullfaced GosT leapt onto the stage and began with some furious beats which sounded especially pounding over the Sound Control speakers.
GosT had a minimal setup with two laptops and an Ableton touchpad. Sometimes he would add live effects and samples to the music, but he was often rocking out, cheering on the crowd and darting about like a madman, moving to the energy of the music. GosT's sound is certainly similar to headliner Perturbator, but a little more stripped back, and a bit more fun and cheesy. Outside of highlights from his two albums was a hilarious remix of Bonnie Tyler's 80s cheese classic "I Need a Hero", combining the original song with one of his original thumping beats underneath that had the crowd going wild.
It was great to see so many Extreme Metal fans out tonight at this Electronic rave, and even the most solemn Black Metal fan couldn't help but dance and bang their heads to GosT's energetic set! 8/10.
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James 'Perturbator' Kent has become known as a hero in the Synthwave scene, recapturing the zeitgeist of Horror Synth that extends from the classic film scores of John Carpenter right upto the recent nostalgic sounds of Drive and Stranger Things. Though not a household name, Perturbator has been integral at establishing this Synth revival of recent times, with 4 majestic concept albums channeling the best parts of 80s Sci-Fi in music form.
Perturbator's setup tonight was much more serious, with two large synthesizers mounted on stands, an intense lightshow and lots of wires on stage! He opened with the pounding Industrial Techno of 'Neo Tokyo', and took us on a journey through much of his latest opus "The Uncanny Valley", with a few older cuts thrown in too. Compared to opener GosT, Perturbator's setlist was built on more complicated rhythmic beats, occasionally glitching and throwing the headbangers in the crowd off guard. Perturbator weaved in his Carpenter-esque synthesizer arpeggios, creating an icy and chilling atmosphere, recalling the greatest retro Horror and Sci-Fi film scores. Of course combining those retro feels with the most modern and pounding Electronic production is what makes him so endearing. He threw in a couple of slower numbers, but mostly it was a display of mammoth, pounding beats and thumping bass that had the crowd moving relentlessly. Perturbator appeals to the young and older crowd in equal measure, and there were just as many Emperor fans as their were Aphex fans in the crowd tonight! This fantastic Electronic show made for a perfect alternative to the hype and trend of the Warehouse Project down the road. Darker, colder, more chilling and sophisticated, tonight was a perfect warm up for Halloween! 9/10.
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October 20th 2016 @ Sound Control, Manchester.
