One More Grain

Earlier in the night we’d had kraut ‘n’ jazz-influenced outfit One More Grain grapple manfully – and perhaps a little drunkenly – with those oldest of evils, sound problems and a muted audience response. To be fair the band only intermittently hit their impressive stride; ‘Having A Ball’s indelible trumpet refrain well matched by churning guitar, and ‘Walking Off The Map’ – something of a purgatorial dreamscape on record – finding dark new purpose with a post-punk overhaul.

Appropriately enough for this most erudite of musical propositions, even their admonishments to the static crowd have a strangely literary bent – if D H Lawrence ever had to cope with the vagaries of performing for an unresponsive live audience, he might well have made like Daniel Quinn and launched into a rambling monologue about the need to make the connection between body and mind. They end with ‘Giriama Wedding’, a typically obscure cover of a Kenyan wedding song recorded for a forthcoming EP and a bizarre slice of hypnotic funk no dance moves of mine could ever hope to accommodate. Sorry fellas!

Watching Felix Kubin, most famously of ‘80s noiseniks Klangkrieg, flit excitably between keyboard and sequencer, it’s impossible to shake the image of Antoine de Caunes (he of Eurotrash notoriety) hamfistedly spoofing Kraftwerk. Suave and yet wearing the expression of a man for whom absurdity is always lurking round the corner, his self-professed Dada-electronics have found illustrious company in labelmates Mouse On Mars, although in truth Kubin’s pumped-up blend of kraut and techno influences is somewhat sunnier of aspect than the aforementioned duo, brimming with cute touches that immediately endear him to this evening’s apparently hard-to-please audience.

But that’s the cutting edge for you: constantly being stabbed in the dark. When the lights go up in 44 years’ time, who knows where your best efforts will land you? Just ask Silver Apples.