A special request from Greg(o)rian.

Doom, sludge, drone etc. is a genre that turns away all but the most serious of underground music lovers. Extremely niche, experimental and avant garde by definition; it's challenging to listen to. It's never casual, forgiving or easy; tourists are not welcome.

Greg(o)rian's bass player and fellow Romford pavement treader Tom Mullen asked me to review his bands first album; "Dormancy of Our Omniscient Masters", and this is what I have to say about it.


It is a rotten offering, carved from the blackened, fetid and weeping flesh of Greg(o)rian's collective body; a small piece of the tortured and imprisoned soul, lovingly donated to the listener. The guitar tone is pure filth scraped from beneath the fingernails of corpses found at the bottom of wells; the bass, heavy enough to shatter a concrete elephant, is a force holding your head beneath the waters of despair, denying you even the slightest breath of hope; it's almost simultaneously a lilting whisper which leads the listener, siren like, from sleep to death. Combined further still with distant screams of peril, mournfully blunt and unpolished vocals and pounding, relentless drumming the young bands first effort is one of great promise.


I feel that the band still has some way to go, this first album is no doom classic. More far reaching experimentation needs to be sought, an individual style must be forged; but for now seeds of a fan base have been sewn with 'Dormancy...' and time, patience, thought and work must be indulged in before the harvest can be enjoyed.




Greg(o)rian's debut is available for free download now, so what are you waiting for? Turn up your speakers, get your mates round, turn the lights down low... and have a doom party.

Martin


http://www.myspace.com/gregoriandoom

Date: 15th of August. Venue: The Bitter End. Acts: Electric Child House, States of Emotion, The Jayways and London Blackmarket.

I enter The Bitter End at around half past 8 and there's already a substantial crowd! Seriously I haven't seen a crowd in the Bitter End like this since Sikth played it a couple of years ago! I am simultaeneously impressed and annoyed at the size of the crowd drawn by the nights headline act London Blackmarket; the size of their appeal impressed, the inconvienience annoyed me, that and the heat generated by the numbers! It was a hard night to concentrate on the music!

First group up on stage are Electric Child House, billed as a "90's rock influenced psychedelic garage band" the group reminded me of Oasis's first album 'Definitely Maybe' ; so much so that I thought their second song was a cover of 'Rock and Roll Star'. They are unlike Oasis however in the sense that their music isn't ladish... You know what I mean. It's not the kind of thing that one would here wafting from a kebab shop, smelling of Stella breath at 2AM. It's too soaring and pretty, with rolling grooves like waves of strawberry love unfurling like orchids in HD. Think Feeder, Kasabian, My Bloody Valentine. I feel though that they don't quite kiss the sky; something is missing, preventing them from achieving pure psychelic bliss... Maybe the singers vocal style was too bland (it was), or the lead guitar player needed to include an epic solo now and then (he should do really), but who knows...
Good songs, good performance, good band.

States of Emotion were up next, this band like the previous, immediately reminded me of another A-list indy act; U2. Soaring indy with a psychedelic melody and pop hooks.
SOE drew a huge crowd! I guess thet're big locally (among live music fans). Too many people for my liking, but thats not their fault... I guess. Their sound was a little too mainstream indy for me, nothing stood out and made me want to remember this band; but since it's not extreme metal I may be biased. I'm quite willing to put up with a lack of difference in bands and their songs as long as it's brutal/chaotic, but with indy I tend to demand experimentalism a lot more. Not impressed much by SOE then.

The same problem seemed to affect the Jayways; they performed well, they had good songs (think The Kooks, Dirty Pretty Things and other light catchy pop indy), the crowd responce was good, or it was at the front at least; everyone else in the pub seemed completely unphased by them. They might as well have let the jukebox play! The problem being here that The Jayways seem to draw a primary audience
that are quite happy to use music as background noise as they chat to friends; something that couldn't happen last week! Extreme metal may annoy, baffle or even offend you; but you can't ignore it, which is the point! So if thats what the Jayways set out to accomplish, job done!

None of that for London Blackmarket however; the crowd began singing their music before they even start playing! And when they did begin, I suddenly understood the reason behind so many strange faces in the pub! And it's a following well deserved!
The confidence of the band fills the air and plants a seed inside all LBM newcomers, it's a feeling that this band are good and well worth taking note of. LBM remind me a lot of Kings of Leon, before they shaved; it's the same kind of sweet, slightly pained shoegaze indy with a little blues thrown in for a touch more insecurity.
The vast audience loved the set, and I'm stuck for trying to remember when I've seen a Bitter End audience so disappointed to see a band stop playing! Chants of "LBM!" carry on as the members pack up their gear, and it's more the swealtering heat than anything which makes me glad it's home time. London Blackmarket are so professional, so talented, so likable, so committed! It's obvious that this is their life, and they're on the right track to making it their full time job too. Check this band out!

Until next week here's the links! Thanks for reading ninja's!

http://www.myspace.com/londonblackmarket
http://www.myspace.com/thejaywaysmusic
http://www.myspace.com/statesofemotion
http://www.myspace.com/electricchildhouse