By Benjamin Ladner, First Year Geography
Avalanche Kaito are described as ‘traditional West African music mixed with avant-garde noise rock.’ This was really a gig you’d have to have seen and heard with your own eyes and ears to comprehend exactly what that meant. The vocalist, Kaito Winse, starts off the set hiding in the depths of the crowd (aided by the long, narrow layout of the Full Moon) whilst chanting a Griot prayer into the mic. The other two members of the group (drums and guitar) then begin to form a soundbath of feedback and crescendoed ride cymbals.
Throughout the set, they blend harsh guitar abuse reminiscent of Black Midi’s Matt Kelvin (RIP!) with actual folk instruments from Burkina Faso, not just touring counterparts. They are often decorated with feathers and beads, and the like. Throughout the set, when Kaito talks to the crowd, he emphasises that this is the music of his people, from his village, and his use of traditional noisemakers embodies this.
His vocal delivery and overall stage presence are those of a priest or shaman delivering a ritual to a crowd of onlookers. The crowd participation adds to this; throughout the set (tuning breaks especially), he would initiate a call-and-response with the crowd. The two Belgian members of the group are also immensely musically talented; the drummer blends Can-esque Kraut motorik with African-style drumming, which is incredibly propulsive.
There is no bassist in the band, but the guitarist had a split output; both the left and right channels went into full-sized pedalboards, which would challenge Kevin Shields on a good day. Of course, this means that he can take up more frequency space in the monitors than if he’d been playing through a regular setup. The shoegaze-type vibe they used here created quite a racket, which made the whole set feel very manic and overstimulating, in an amazing way.
The first support act, Public Burning (who are Bristol-based), are an incredibly edgy post-punk band with a great vocalist. Their tight rhythm section, combined with the scratchy, distorted guitars, reminds me very much of early Shellac. Obviously, being an old-school-sounding punk band, they just have to mention anarchy somewhere in the set. Regrettably for them, this came in the form of an open-ended call to the crowd, ‘think of all the things you can burn in public!’ A voice in the crowd shouted out, ‘myself!’ That voice was big Jeffrey Johns. Luckily, he was a good sport there…
The second act was Bologna-based Cul Zag, a two-piece synth-punk band. The drummer was, again, Kraut-inspired, and the singer and keyboardist had a setup that probably drained all the power from Stokes Croft. The vocalist was an oddball (intentionally); he spoke about Digimon between songs and wore a plant pot on his head.
This duo presents a strong argument for the removal of the electric guitar from pop music entirely; the synth tones were harsh and cutting, and due to the digital nature of the instrument, notes can be looped and arpeggiated at will. They were sort of like a combination of Xiu Xiu and Suicide, if you can imagine such a thing.
Overall, it was an amazing, eclectic line-up of bands. I hadn’t heard music from any of these groups before attending, but that really didn’t matter. It seems like this was a voyage of discovery for everybody there. The Full Moon & Attic Bar was an ideal venue as well, with a great layout and DJs spinning funky tracks from vinyl in between the performed sets too.
Featured Image: Epigram / Benjamin LadnerDo you like genre-blending punk music?
