大象传媒

It starts with a whisper, and ends with a scream. In between, there's some carefully calculated noise rock, and more than a few life or death moments. It's Thursday, it's Two Step, it's Heliopause, Before Machines, and The Continuous Battle of Order...it's on.

Hauntingly delicate on record, Heliopause are an altogether different beast on the live stage. Equally comfortable in a full electric setting as they are in acoustic mode, the band have been adapting themselves to a variety of situations for quite some time now. And whilst the three piece might not be able to capture the intricacies of their records in a live setting, there is instead a muscular bite to the songs, and a more direct sense of melody on display.

Stripped to their core, Niall Harden's drums are skitterish and inventive, whilst Chris McCorry's guitar is elegiac, clawing at the rafters in its attempt to break through into the stratosphere. All the while, the acoustic guitar and voice of Richard Davis is the anchor, preventing it all from breaking forth in various directions. The performance is not without its faults (a few technical difficulties threaten to derail everything, leaving two thirds of the band quite literally drawing attention to the fact that nothing is happening), but once again Heliopause have proved that this quiet and unassuming band are worth making a big noise over.

Now fleshed out to a four piece, Before Machines are more conventional in sound, but no less interesting. Picking up the tempo, their noise is tightly focussed, with intricate guitar lines intertwining over a bed of bass and drums. Occasionally calling to mind a heavier Pinback, the songs are melodic whilst still managing to take us on an interesting journey. It all ends in a fairly epic guitar jam, albeit one that manages to avoid all the clich茅s of the "epic guitar jam". It's early days yet, but Before Machines are a band with a potentially glittering future ahead of them.

Conversely, Continuous Battle of Order have a glorious past behind them, emerging out of the ashes of the much loved We Are Knives. But the two-piece are a force to be reckoned with, playing with an intense technicality that causes jaws to drop to the floor the second they start unleashing their lightning fast guitar and drum attack. It's insanely loud and aggressive, with guitar lines (you couldn't really call them "riffs"...could you?) and percussion battering you into submission. But despite the complexity and technicality of the music, there's something powerfully human to it as well, with guitarist Hornby shouting as loud as he can, eschewing the microphone. In a sense there something totally hilarious about this kind of music, being as over the top as anything you can imagine, but it's so expertly conducted that you can't help walking away completely satisfied.

It's not for everyone, but since when has that been a bad thing?

Words: Steven Rainey

Photo: Alex Donald