Sinister: Animal House (again) - NO B&S !!

[ben ferneyhough]

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.
 
 
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.             Listen, this is pish, I think I'll leave
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