Madhatters, Hootananny, Inverness, 14 & 16 April 2010

28 Jacks ( © Alexander Smith)

WITH THEIR debut album scheduled for release in a couple of weeks, much-hyped local act Bronto Skylift brought their two man sonic assault to Hootananny for a mid-week outing, supported by super-cool French rockers Mr Protector.

The French band quickly disarmed the initially apathetic crowd with an aggressive instrumental opener, which set the tone for the rest of their performance. They have an allergy to structure, instead opting for semi-improvised, free-flowing arrangements suffused with sporadic verse; this gives their music an interesting stylistic feature, at times reminiscent of Television.

Although their set was fairly devoid of dynamics, and a couple of tracks clocked in at nearly ten minutes, mercifully, they were more Stooges than Yes, so they never became too enervating. Playing as part of their short UK tour, I think they may well have made some friends in the Highland capital.

Bronto Skylift generally don’t start a set, they detonate, and luckily this performance was no different as they treated the audience to a barnstorming mid-week preview of their upcoming debut. They demonstrated an emerging mastery of dynamics and a growing maturity of talent, while still retaining the dense, riff-heavy aggression which initially made them such a penetrating live act.

With no shortage of acts opting for a similar aesthetic, what elevates Bronto is the quality of their material; tracks such as the excellent Eagle/Falcon showed real melodic content breaching their ferocious wall of distortion. They offered an assured, keyed-up, controlled and often intense set, which eschewed standard musical norms for something more interesting.

They recalled various acts throughout, most notably Nirvana, but ultimately they remain pretty hard to tie down. Without wishing to gush too much, they are fast becoming one of the finest new live acts in the country. See their website (link below) for release details.

To launch HAIL’s new download card release, Hootananny also played host to a couple of short acoustic showcases from two of the featured acts. The first came courtesy of local collective Abagail Grey, who provided a delicate, low-key start to proceedings. They exuded a cool, lo-fi folk aesthetic, while retaining some strong traditional qualities.

Singer Claire Campbell’s vocals were impeccable, and there was some gorgeous musical interplay between the two harps and her piano. Songs such as Ghost acted as a fine example of her song writing skills, mixing her interesting take on the traditional with some underlying pop sensibilities reminiscent of Regina Spektor.

Throughout, the material contained darker lyrical themes which provided a potent contrast to the gentle, often somnolent tone of the music. This was an alluring and sophisticated performance from the skilled Highland songwriter.

28 Jacks changed the pace slightly with a sharp, stripped down set of well written indie rock material. Their influences are close to the surface, recalling the usual suspects from The Small Faces through to Brit Pop, but they have enough charisma and strength of material to sound relevant and contemporary.

© Alexander Smith, 2010

Links

• HAIL
• Bronto Skylift
• Hootananny