Dear Lovelies, Was in the pub last night, and picked up the local Nightshift paper that tells what bands are playing Oxford and where, and there was a super review of the Animal House (who feature 1/2 of Ride) gig me and a few other listees went to. I remember I had difficulty in describing what they were like, so here's how a journalist tries to describe it..... ANIMAL HOUSE. Bullingdon Arms. Re-invention is the theme of the evening. We are, after all, in the new, improved Bullingdon Arms. Tonight it is full of a mighty buzz as the glitterati of the Oxford music scene gather in force to cast an eye over Animal House - who feature (in case you slammed yourself in the freezer after 'Austin Powers' and have just woken up) Mark and Loz out of Ride plus Sam Williams, ex-Mystic and Supergrass producer. Unlike most supergroups (from Blind Faith to the Travelling Wilburys), they know how to keep it short, strolling on at 11 and playing five songs. They have also succeeded in creating a new sound for themselves which seems to have practically nothing in common with their previous projects and they are able to project themselves as a group, not as a collection of separate egos struggling for the spotlight. In fact, there is no spotlight. Animal House play swathed in back projections, phrases from their lyrics flashing up in between abstract images and kaleidoscope patterns which admirably suit their clean, trippy modernity. And modern they are, in the strangest combination of ways. Sam and Mark play guitars and sing - so for so traditional - while Disco 45-er Jason king supplies imaginative keyboard flourishes. But Mark's former 60s wishfulness (most recently seen on last year's 'Magdelen Skies') only surfaces here in his trademark Byrds-y harmonies: otherwise this is a much harder-edged sound... but without the eccentric twists and lurches beloved of the Mystics. Heavy sampled beats are the (new) order of the day - referring occasionally to the junglist 90s but more frequently to early 80s electro and its autobahn-crazed precursors. Bassist Hari and drummer Loz lock in effortlessly (clunk, click, every trip) and the motorcade is off, cruising linear grid system mapped out by Kraftwerk and JG Ballard. 'Ready to Receive' goes the first song, but don't bother to search skies - these signals come from inner space and it'as all clean lines and mathematics here. The organic and irrational are a constant subversive presence in this music and its greatest strength lies in this contrast between the mechanistic and the chaotic, order and disorder, sampler versus human. 'Welcome to the Animal House' sing Mark and Sam on the penultimate song and continue the story with the succinctly titled finale 'Animal'. Get the picture ? Yes, we see. Maybe we are a little overcome by the excitement of this celebratory debut...maybe we've been staring at the lightshow for too long... but, even though it's not quite what we expected, we think we might be back again soon to visit the Animal House. Harry Lime. That mammoth epic was taken from nightshift, who have an internet site at: http://www.oxlink.co.uk/nightshift/ Sorry if that was boring, but I said there was no Belle and Sebastian content !!!! Ben. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- . This message was brought to you by the Sinister mailing list. . To send to the list please mail "sinister@majordomo.net". . For subscribing, unsubscribing and other list information please see . http://www.majordomo.net/sinister . For questions about how the list works mail owner-sinister@majordomo.net . Listen, this is pish, I think I'll leave -----------------------------------------------------------------------