There’s peace and tranquillity upstairs at Broadcast but what would be lurking in the basement? The poster on the wall said Apache Darling, Atom Tree and Asthmatic Astronaut and, given the lack of available parallel universes in the vicinity, that indeed proved to be the musical inventory.
Asthmatic Astronaut had the stage to himself although the prerequisite laptop appeared to be doing much of the work that comes with impersonating a DJ trapped in a student union bar on Rura Penthe. However, if you consider that an unfinished symphony was good enough for Schubert then Asthmatic Astronaut’s place in the universe of sound was always made obvious.
Wisely deciding that the use of real percussion was the way to go when doing things on the stage of reality, Atom Tree also benefitted from the sultry vocals of Julie Knox and she duly did her part by lifting their songs derived of minimal ambient textures upwards and outwards into the audience. Although little was actually made of the power to be found in lyrics, that mattered less than the fact that Atom Tree had a moody musical attitude all of their own.
With little in the way of ado, Apache Darling then took to the stage. Singer Stefanie Lawrence – no stranger to these ears - sparkled in silver in her new role fronting this synth pop outfit’s upfront and immaculately executed songs with, as always, the benefits of a musical education present and correct for all to hear in each and every note she sang. Augmented on stage by a bass player pleasingly obsessed with fluidity and drummer with aspirations to rock the house, Apache Darling got the applause that they deserved and, from the very first note, there was never any real doubt that would happen.
What is my name? Caesar Augustus? No, that’s the name of the beer. Time to fall off the end of the world again.