The Unbroken Circle - Live Reviews   Reviews by site contributors of artists playing live.   We encourage all readers to submit their reviews for includion. To discuss this or submit a review get in touch at lordofmisrule@theunbrokencircle.co.uk

United Bible Studies featuring Daniel Patrick Quinn, Kitchen Cynics Orchestra
The Tunnels, Aberdeen, 4th September

The Kitchen Cynics Orchestra comprises of Alan Cynic plus backing musicians; tonight being Mike on guitar and Duncan on cello. The set includes a Famous Jug Band inspired 'Black is the Colour' and Wicker Man song 'Gently Johnny', during which Mike does a lovely dance for us. (remember the bit when Willow is waving her arse around trying to tempt Sgt. Howie into her room? Imagine a bloke doing it!) They finish up with original KC song 'Now is the Time'. Sadly no trumpoflutes, but not a bad set all in all.

United Bible Studies are (currently) a five-piece from Ireland - apparently their line-up can fluctuate from three to twelve members!  Their music, while rooted in folk, is also deeply experimental, involving the scraping of violin bows on various objects, ebow-ed lap steel, electronics and the occasional bugle. They open tonight's set with 'Tributaries of the Styx Under Dublin'.  As the title suggests, it is dark and strange, embellished with discordant keyboard sounds and the rich, deep vocals of singer Dave Colohan.  It segues into an old Scottish song, 'Highland Lament' (which happens to be the opening music for the aforementioned Wicker Man) and off into improvisation. 

After 'Watching the Rain Reshape Galway', guest vocalist Daniel Patrick Quinn takes the mic.  He swaggers around the stage reciting poetry that tells tales of hills and standing stones in rural England, while the band play on behind him.  After three songs, he leaves the stage and the rest of the set consists of free-form improvisation, concluding to much applause, which does not show any signs of stopping until they agree to play an encore.

Incidentally, just after the band had finished, my friend Adam said he saw a 'female spirit' moving up the middle of the venue towards the stage.  Nobody else saw anything though, so he'd  probably just had one Magner's too many. (nasty stuff, that)
 

United Bible Studies  www.desertedvillage.com    our artist reviews

Daniel Patrick Quinn  www.suilvenrecordings.com    our album review    new free compilation
 

Pete McConville, The Kitchen Cynics, Alan McClure

Cafe Drummonds, Aberdeen, 28th June 2005

Alan McClure, ex of the Beaker People, is a songwriter with reggae and folk influences. His songs, needless to say, are rather eclectic, but always cleverly written and often witty. The thing I like best about Alan's songs is that they cover a wide range of subjects, from reptilian ontology(!) ('Do Snakes Dream of People?'), disillusionment ('Screw You, Guru') to political satire ('Trade Not Aid'). Tonight Alan has a brace of new songs to show off, and his set goes down well with the Drummonds crowd (Alan Cynic was headbanging away throughout!)

Talking of whom, The Kitchen Cynics, tonight just Alan on his own - last time I saw him, supporting the Incredible String Band, he had a backing band playing an impressive array of exotic instruments, some homemade. During the last song they danced offstage in single file, still playing their mini trombones and trumpoflutes. The String Band had a hard time following that! Anyway, this time he plays 'Wizard of the North', a song about the first magician ever to pull a rabbit out of a hat, who is buried in the kirkyard up here. He also plays 'The Place You Hid' where we learn of his favourite pulling techniques (pretending to be shy and 'telling sad stories that would make you cry') He seems perfectly at home on stage and rambles away as if talking to a group of friends, which, I suppose, he is. 

Pete McConville is on last. His traditional influences shine bright in his songs, whether he is wistful ('Farm Song'), playful ('Blossom and the Bees' - "I'm sorry that I'm so late to arrive/but the dandelion clock she told me lies/and I started speaking to the rosemary/about the new flowers that she wears") or angered ('Last of My Kind'), battering his guitar as if it were responsible for all the injustice in the world. Tonight, Pete has three new songs which he saves for last. 'Seeds They Will Spring', played on accordion, is particularly striking. The lyrics tell a familiar tale of death and rebirth, the ugliness and beauty in nature which go hand in hand with one another and cannot be separated. 'Radiatingly Round' is strange and shimmering, picked out on autoharp. Unfortunately this song was a bit quiet, as autoharps are a bugger to mike up! He picked up his guitar again for last song 'Lain Both Early' which is both mellow and beautiful, and brought a fitting close to the gig

The artists websites are:
 - Alan McClure:   www.musicbuilder.com/the_beaker_people/
 - Kitchen Cynics:    www.singersong.homestead.com/TheKitchenCynics.html   To hear now, click here
 - Pete McConville:   To hear now, click here
 

Reviewed with thanks by Caroline Kemp

Devendra Banhart, Espers
Liquid Room, Edinburgh, 1 August 2005

Philadelphia's Espers are the folk Hawkwind; their songs tend to start off as pretty folk ballads and mutate into fuzz-soaked psychedelic Space Rituals. Unfortunately, at the Liquid Room, technical difficulties (the Fuzzface wouldn't work!) meant that they were more restrained than usual but this didn't detract too much from the music and their set was fantastic anyway.  Opening with a stunningly beautiful version of traditional song  'Black is the Colour' (which is included on their covers album out soon), they proceeded to play songs from the current album, such as 'Riding'; "So we circle and strive and reverse when we drive so we never arrive". Singers Greg Weeks and Meg Baird interweaving harmonies over fingerpicked guitar and dramatic cello to create a sound that is both original and striking.  Apparently a version of Blue Oyster Cult's 'Flaming Telepaths' is going to feature on the new album. Now that WILL be something.

Devendra Banhart, far from playing the solo acoustic set I'd expected, strode on stage with his band Vedivir, who are all just as hairy as he is, except the drummer who wore a cardboard beard to compensate.  All of them sported mascara and eyeliner, giving them the appearance of a gang of gay pirates. In a good way.  The set consisted largely of new material (some of which was quite lovely, especially the one where he ponders why everyone treats him like a man when, he insists, he is still a child) and Vedivir songs, although he did play 'Its a Sight to Behold', 'Little Yellow Spider'  and 'This Beard is for Siobhan' (the one about taking his teeth out dancing)  and probably some other stuff which i have forgotten since I was rather tipsy.  I do remember, however, that at one point he referred to himself as a 'schizophrenic haemaphrodite' and that they closed with 'Poor Moon',  probably the worst song canned Heat ever recorded, and still managed to make it sound fantastic!

The artists web sites are:

 - Espers:  www.espers.org     To hear them now, click here
 - Devendra Banhart    www.younggodrecords.com/Artists/DevendraBanhart

Reviewed with thanks by Caroline Kemp

Pictures are for illustration only and often will not be from the actual performance being reviewed.