Test Icicles / Killa Kela / Spin Spin The Dogs

What’s this supposed to be then? Music? Or are you going to try telling me it’s ‘Art’? As Spin Spin The Dogs attempt to find synthesis in erratic tub-thumping on a toy drum, mixed with dribbling saxophone squirts and a man wailing ‘Sexy! Sexy!’ over and over again into a microphone which, if it had feelings, would probably be crying its sorry little microphone heart out, the thirty or so people congregated by the stage at The Social look hugely unimpressed. They jump from these, what they might call ‘experimental’, meanderings to the kind of down-the-line punk racket that would do well underscoring a particularly painful bought of diarrhoea. As they leave the stage with the world unchanged, someone shouts the immortal put-down, “Must try harder!” and they’d be good to heed the advice.

Beatboxer Killa Kela’s billing is curious not simply for it’s positioning (he’s a longer-established & so-far more successful act that tonight’s headliners) but simply for his inclusion on this punk/thrash rock tour. It’s no matter though, as curiosity soon takes a backseat behind the massive crowd that miraculously materialise as he takes the stage. The renowned throat-thrasher, touted by the likes of Pharell Williams, is a one-man sonic powerhouse. Rarely stopping for a breath, perfectly layering bass beats, high hats, lyrics and record scratch effects – all created with his mouth – is a massively impressive feat and the crowd repay him dutifully with cheers so wild that, if they were somehow scientifically condensed, could swiftly engulf and drown a man. Despite not getting many of the hip-hop references (including snatched covers of Kanye West, Snoop Dogg & Kelis), the previously surly indie on-lookers momentarily down their shoe-gazing façade and embrace the spirit of the moment, arms flailing in the air, even indulging in the traditional ‘Hey-Ho’ call and responses.

Maybe people let go too much, as they appear to cower back into themselves, reclining in embarrassment, hoping that their indier-than-thou peers never discover they allowed themselves to actually have fun, as by the time the mighty Test Icicles take the stage, the crowd no longer seem ‘up for it’.

There is a slightly misguided image of these riotous young noisemakers being thrown about, that paints them as an introverted, eccentric indie-rock trio –indeed current single ‘Circle Triangle Square’ is closer in sound to Bloc Party than Slayer, so you may be forgive for being tricked. With this in mind it’s clear that a proportion of the crowd receive a sizeable shock as they launch into dense, distorted, finely distilled metal hurricanes that whirl round the venue in the same way the band (three guitarists & pre-recorded drum tracks) whirl their instruments around their necks, caught in a hybrid-rock wind-tunnel that has the potential to amaze at every moment possible.

Despite minor technical faults, a few false starts and a crowd who seem to refuse embrace, Test-Icicles leave a fierce mark on the mind, like being pawed by a giant angry bear. Ending with the triumphant, bass-rumbling ‘Catch It’, an Aphex Twin meets Dillinger Escape Plan party anthem, offers a glimpse of their potential for bigger things. Still relatively in their infancy, they showcase a wealth of talent beneath their at first seemingly impenetrable wall of sound. When you focus beneath this hard outer skin you find them one step ahead, having already crawled under your own – it’s this subtle hook which has so far gained them a huge cult following on MySpace – and once you’ve found this insight, the experience is thrilling. Test Icicles rule.

FUTURE GIGS

sorry, we currently have no gigs listed for this act.