Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun

Akron/Family, Fabulous Diamonds
10 December 2009, Corner Hotel, Melbourne

I'll just start off by saying, wow. I wasn't sure what to expect, I thought I would like it but really, wow, how could I have known?

So, the normal stuff, super rainy day yesterday, hard to make myself go out into it, and sickness took down some others who were supposed to go along. A shame about that, they would have loved it. Fabulous Diamonds had just started when we got there. I hadn't heard them before and various web pages say things like minimal psychniks, classic dub, experimentalism and post punk mixed together. So, basically it could sound like anything. They are a two piece band, a woman on drums and a guy playing keyboards (and turning dials on effects pedals).

She reminded me of Moe Tucker on drums, sometimes using mallets, simple drum patterns, very minimal, but with cycles in them and a different sound dropped in each cycle around. Much of it was instrumental but the singing was like Dead Can Dance when she did sing. The keyboards sounded like horror film soundtrack organs, mostly simple back and forth between two notes (and between two different keyboards) but that also cycled while he played with the digital delay and sound structure, like how harmonics and beats create different rhythms within the main rhythm. I suspect that there was some music theory in all of it, carefully thought out and constructed. In between it all, they didn't move much or say much.

Being experimental, I would say I liked about half of it, half the experiments worked. Like the 2nd to last song was 10 minutes or so of the simple two note variations that generated some really interesting rhythms, just got really hypnotic and trance like. Then the last song was sort of a variation of that, another long 10+ minute song that just didn't really feel like it fit together very well, just sort of beats and notes and stuff but not really a song. I guess not a bad choice for an opening band. I usually seem to be about 50/50 on them, they just had that split within the one set.

Now, I've been listening to a fair amount of Akron/Family lately, but that didn't really prepare me for the show. The records have lots of pretty little songs, slow and gentle pieces that have strange touches and unusual layers added on top, sort of acoustic sounding strumming, rhythm that sounds like it is sometimes played on cardboard boxes, creaking chairs, with happy vocals backed by choir like three part harmonies, then lead into noisier longer pieces. They are on Young God Records (Michael Gira's label) and I can see how they fit in with that sort of quiet intensity like the direction the Swans and Skin went in their later years.



I don't know where to start, maybe in the middle or towards the end with my favourite moment of it all. So, the band is a three piece with drum, bass and guitar, although that was flexible, might be three guitars at a time, or two drums and a guitar, or just singing with strange noises from effects pedals. But this song had two on drums (one a stand up set, tribal sort of drumming) and guitar as well as the two guests from Fabulous Diamonds hitting whatever sorts of drums were on stage. Just 10 minutes or whatever of tribal drumming and noises and just a crazy intensity which I haven't really seen at a show forever, like Crash Worship kind of crazy, just totally hypnotic then the bass play pulls out a little shrill pipe and starts blowing on that, almost like a fox hunt call to arms, all I could think is what the hell was that, how could this get any weirder. Wow.

There was some guy from the audience on the corner of the stage, dancing and bobbing around. They left him there for 10-15 minutes, you know he was just sort of there not doing anything. Security then goes and tries to push him off until the bass player goes and grabs him and pushes him away, so he stayed and danced away for a few more songs.

Just really, I can't describe it. Songs would shift into completely different things, and they just were indescribable in the first place. You know, this song is completely noisy but it seems like there is an Irish jig under there somewhere. Or the sea shanty underneath their final song of the night which already seemed to have some sort of jazz funk already on top of it. So, I really loved it. Three minute little pretty sweet songs with 10 minute noisy strange segues (all I could think of was vaguely Interstellar Overdrive like) into the next three minute pretty part. What isn't to love there? What an awesome mind blowing experience.