The Cooper Temple Clause

Be afraid.

Pick a scene from your favourite Stephen King flick, cross it with your favourite Coopers song – (‘The Lake’, or maybe ‘Murder Song’) - and you have tonight’s horror-show Astoria. It’s hard to see, but a thousand or-so Didz clones are just about visible; silhouetted through the dense, sweaty mist and dark-soaked smoke. A homage perhaps, to their now appendix-less bassist (a big droopy pout in a leather jacket). Or possibly just a statement of intent on behalf of the The Cooper Temple Clause’s assembled obsessionals out for a bit of blood sports rock action. Be very afraid.

You love the Coopers because they look, smell, act and sound like your previous favourite rock band should have done. Like sonic heavyweight wrestling, it could be Liam snarling a recent Primal Scream song in the style of **Pink Floyd, but you can’t be sure. Combining dark, subversive lyrics with their inimitable deadpan humility and sampled-rock theatrics, they work the theory that no cliché is too tired to be overhauled and that no musical genre should be left un-plundered for their brand of ‘rejuvenation’. Whether you read Smash Hits, Attitude or indeed the NME, their post-rock pop is familiar enough to be listenable and yet varied enough to be fresh and vital. Taller than most mythical gods, they also demand Beckham-level adoration.

On paper then, tonight’s show is little more than a contractual PR obligation, but in keeping with the chaotic fervour we’ve grown to expect from TCTC, they shelve several new songs at the last minute because, "Ben can’t sing them". Instead, they take ‘A.I.M’ and fire through three new tracks, before cluster bombing us with most of See This Through And Leave.

‘New Toys’ inspires visions of trashing Hamley’s with a flamethrower, whilst new single, ‘Promises, Promises’ is an obvious attempt at a more ‘song’ based tune. It seems to spiral around unnervingly before exploding into a rather more satisfying chorus, but the band however, lack their normal brazen confidence. ‘The Same Mistakes’, with its gasping rhythm and tangled sampling is the most ‘dancey’ of the new tracks, and is quite indicative of their new sound. Like all they do, it’s a mess of complexities, but doesn’t exactly reassign where they’re coming from.

It’s true that ‘Panzer Attack’ and ‘Let’s Kill Music’ have been touted around for a while now (about 3 years - Geek Ed)_, but as they each thrash away like convulsing string puppets<, the reckless hyperbole which The Cooper Temple Clause exude is what holds them miles above any other British band, even when they appear clumsy and under-rehearsed. They thrive off it. The magnetic power which underpins the distorted, flapping basslines and their hissy electronic, ‘hand-in-a-fan’ guitar rows is always immense.