Spirit of Gravity at the Marlborough Theatre, Brighton, Tuesday 18th April

I'm Dr Buoyant
"Hello - I'm I'm Dr Buoyant", and it is, Tony Rimbaud, at last stepping out of the shadows long and er, not so long of his assorted collaborative efforts to stand tall and loopy as a solo artiste. The Founder of the Spirit of Gravity was excellent, too. I missed the sneak preview he'd put up on the sogblog (spiritofgravity-brighton.blogspot.com/) but was happily enthralled by the loops and noises he laced together. Having now heard the mini CD he was touting (no doubt if you reply to this email he'll happily post you a copy for some small fee) I can tell you that live he built on the acoustic vignettes, expanding on them, sometimes letting us feel the joy of extreme repetition, sometimes taking them off on little side paths, through the fertile gardens of his imaginings and sometimes thickening up the sound with echo and effects. And linking the whole set together with distorted snatches of Ivor Cutler for the first of the evenings tributes. For some reason I was reminded of the techno del norte of Robert Rodriguez. But what that reason was I don't know.

Sideband
I kind of feel I should put some dictionary style definition in here, as it helps to explain what's going on, but I won't. The collaboration between the NY avant vocalist, the sculptor and the ex drummer was one of the best examples of experiental music we've had in a while. From right to left across the stage there was increasing height, increasing scruffiness and increasing entropy, laptop giving way to microphone and effects giving way to finger damped tape loops of indeterminate length (aah - 1/4 inch tape yet!). There was structure and freedom, odd improv jazz squalls and amazing amounts of space, volume and hush. And like the best collaborations it was hard to work out who was providing which sound, occasionally a guttural growl or floating note could be pinned down to Kay Grant, but with everyone processing, and anyone supplying rhythmic parts, could that click be coming from tape or computer? The bump - from voice or machine? It was unfortunate that they had to be on so early as I know Jim missed them, and so may others. Really outstanding stuff, and like the best live work, at its best live.

Ultrafoetus
Due to double booking troubles Bela and Britch's night at the Fringe bar couldn't happen (see what happens when you go up against us, a little more care with your scheduling in future please!), which meant that we had an extra guest, Fuzz from Manchester. A bit more beaty than we're used to getting away with in the hushed halls of the Marlborough Theatre, but nice to have as a change. Clean digital hiphop breaks, with super bass rumblings. A short set, abstract and rolling, but tempting all the same. A sound bloke with ramblings and downloads available online (profile.myspace.com/ultrafoetus and www.thembuzz.co.uk/about.htm).

After a brief tribute to Ivor Cutler (http://niri.ncsa.uiuc.edu/for/ivor/): a mention of the good work of the noise abatement society, some reading, some singing and a recording or two the evening was finished off by:

Minimal Impact
Leaving his promised preview of two new CDs aside,Minimal Impact scared us with his sonic warfare rumbling and messages from the messengers of god. As the lights slowly dimmed to darkness and the womblike feeling induced by the unstructured hums and whooshes increased, he counterpointed the drowsy cosiness with the most intense set of dialogue I've heard in this environment. Operatives from the Jericho Institute discuss putting the literal fear of god into their opponents with a religious intensity that has to be heard.