It's raining music and it burns. Ouch, I like it.

 

So, after a wondeful few days of gigs, here's the round-up of what I saw at tritych this year.

Adem & Akron/Family at the Bongo Club

Firstly let's get the 'headliners', Akron/Family out of the way. With plenty of charming banter and a good line in noisy blues stomps they seemed promising on the outset. Unfortunately, they fell into the dull stoner rock trap of thinking that you could put 6 minutes of meaningless feedback in EVERY BLOODY SONG and still be entertaining. They were wrong, and as a result somewhat patchy.

No such disappointment from the real star of the night - Adem. With a clutch of effortlessy beautiful songs played on an array of esoteric acoustic instruments, there was a danger that music so fragile would fall apart in the bongo club. Opening with a solo rendition of new song 'spirals' it was clear that no such thing would happen. Somehow managing to avoid all the singer-songwriter cliches without making a hoo-ha about all the whacky instruments employed, the band managed to make you feel like you were the only person in the room. A rare thing indeed.

Extra point also go to Adem's band for using abotu 5 different glockenspiels during the gig. Plink-tastic.

Mogwai at the Usher Hall

Mogwai were my first real love in music and as such I find it hard to describe them without descending into a flurry ofsuperlatives. I've been going to see them live since I was 17 years old, and every gig has been spectacular and unique. Despite the poor acoustics of the Usher hall and the omission of 'My Father My King' (possibly the best live song EVER) the gig was still beautiful, mesmeric and punishing in all the right ways. After tugging on your heartstrings with perfect melodies, they assault you with a veritable barrage of sound. It's a very physical and emotional experience and I urge anyone who hasn't had the 'Gwai live experience to seek it out at the nearest possibility. Just don't expect to leave with your hearing intact.

Keiran Hebden/Steve Reid & Battles at The Venue

Laptop deviant Keiran Hebden has always floated on the more organic side of electronica, so teaming up with Steve Reid - a legendary drummer - for some live shows seems like a brilliant idea. In reality the results were somewhat patchy, but bearing in mind that the whole hours performance was improvised that's no big loss. It was certainly fun watching the interplay between a wizened legend and a twitchy upstart, and the mutual reverence made for a rather touching stage chemistry. Certainly not an essential event, but entertaining nontheless.

Battles, on the other hand are nothing short of incredible. Their records seem a little bit too robotic to really excite - almost verging towards dull muso wankery at times. On stage, however, they create a truly compelling spectacle, but more importantly they make you want to dance your fucking legs off. Combining astonishing musicianship with oodles of spastic energy, they all but tear your face off with their ferocity all the while juggling absurd polyrhythms and dancing like fools. If there's any justice in this owrld they'll be headlining the pyramid stage at next year's glastonbury, and as the camera pans out into the crowd, you'll be just able to make out the banner 'More Human Beat-Box in Post-Rock'.

Tunng & Buck 65 at the Bongo Club

At first I thought Tunng might be a bit like a British version of The Postal Service and was getting rather excited by theor performance. By the end, however, I got a bit bored by their distinct lack of performance, despite having some very accomplished and engaging music. Possibly just wasn't in the mood.

Buck 65 is utterly unique as far as hip-hop artists go. Drawing from his upbringing in rural Canada and seemingly fathomless music collection he crafts superbly skewed tales of, well, just about anything really. On stage, he's like a performing re-embodiment of John Peel. The musical esoterica and technical hitches of Peel's music shows (rapping to obscure classical music and skipping records) blending with the superb storytelling and emotional honesty of Home Truths (each track came with a funny, touching prologue) are enough to make any sane person grin all over.

In summary, then a rather fine festval. Bring on next year!