大象传媒

Belfast's Animal Disco boasts an impressive array of bands set to play in the coming weeks as their "band at midnight" format seeks to win our hearts and minds. The metal-tinged post rock stylings of Kasper Rosa may seem an unusual choice for a self-professed indie dance/electro club, but the audience give a warm reception to the Belfast band.

Quite simply, Kasper Rosa's second EP is a triumph. It's an entirely different matter transferring those devastating and decaying soundscapes, the rich textures, and varied instrumentation to the small stage of Auntie Annie's. The results are mixed, but overall Kasper Rosa retain the excitement and the energy displayed on record.

From opener "Team Building Exercise" onwards, we're faced with a different animal on stage. The string parts have disappeared and things are certainly more rough and ready. However, the highlights still remain: the musicians are haphazard yet proceedings fail to fall into chaos, the guitar phrasing is bluesy and occasionally Claptonesque, with a sinister and fiery energy propelling it along effortlessly. For the most part the audience are glued to their set, but the background chatter does audibly increase in volume on occasion as tracks begin to wind down.

Post-rock tracks generally embody a strong structural element, not so much a "verse-chorus-verse-middle 8-outro" plan, but a definite attention to detail. Once or twice the guitar solos felt more like a stream of consciousness, instead of a finely crafted masterpiece, layering a foundation of guitar chords upon driving and dynamic drumming, then slowly building an ocean of melodies and basslines before finally exploding when we simply can't take it anymore.

"This Version Of The Facts" takes nearly two minutes to escape the mazy guitar lines and show its true colours, emerging as a sprawling, ominous beast of a track. The guitars suddenly switch from a distorted mess into a clean, light tone as they take us by surprise, lulling the crowd into a soft sense of security, then returning to the original theme. "Scaling Mount Improbable" is the track of the night: it takes an age before it looks like it's going anywhere, then there's a sudden moment of clarity as the tempo starts to increase, the guitars get tighter and the melody kicks in beautifully.

It's tricky to stand out in the post rock genre and Kasper Rosa are by no means perfect. There can be a tendency to repeat a riff one too many times, play a solo that seems to be going nowhere or - worst of all - just letting a song go on for too long. However the crowd interaction and the melodies go some way to addressing the comparatively stripped down live sound. Overall, the band live up to their recorded output, albeit with a little less grace and a lot more rawk.

Patrick Kane