Piano Magic, Leafcutter John and Klima, Museum of Garden History, 15/06/07

 

I do enjoy the trend towards holding concerts in non-traditional venues, and this one is a beaut.  An 1851 restoration of a 14th century parish church, with all the interesting features you would expect from such a building.  I was particularly taken by the large plaque on the church wall, erected on the instruction of someone who died in the early 1800s to commemorate his giving £100 per annum in perpetuity to local “poor boys”…as long as they were not chimney sweeps, watermen or catholics.  No blacks, no frogs, no Irish indeed.  There were a few things you probably wouldn’t expect from such a building - the knot design garden out back, the display of antique gardening equipment, and the cafe selling stuffed peppers, blue cheese salad and pinot noir.  I could have accurately predicted a lack of toilet facilities, but I’m not about to spend another review going on about that…

Klima, then.  The new venture from Angèle David-Guillou, occasional vocalist with the headliners.  French, obviously.  A three piece, with the Piano Magic drummer, and a guitarist who looked disturbingly like Liverpool legend Ian Rush.  During the wankier guitar bits, he pulled faces like I imagine said striker would pull when running up to take a penalty*, feigning that he was going to thump into hard, low and right, but at the last second cunningly dinking it left instead.  The music was fairly forgettable, which is a shame as I have heard it sounds much more interesting on record, and Angèle has a rather lovely voice.

Leafcutter John was probably always going to be the most interesting of the three acts.  Playing songs from his album “The Forest and The Sea” with collaborator Alice Grant, we were treated to laptop and guitar (obviously), melodica, spring, balloon, children playing whistles, looped vocals, and a discursion on the healing properties of a particular brand of hand cream.  There was a great deal of invention on display; the treatment of the various sounds produced was most impressive, from the twang of the drumstick under the guitar strings, to the electronic crunch of the slinky.

I was a leetel beet disappointed with Piano Magic.  While there were some good moments where they sounded a bit shoegaze or a bit French Disko, any trace of subtlety from their records was submerged under a whole lot of noisy bluster.   I was tempted to wander off for a look at the displays of old lawnmowers…

*Although, as everyone knows, Jan Molby took the penalties.