Monster Bobby/ Komuso/ Rashamon @ The Spirit of Gravity, Free Butt, Tuesday 23rd March 2004

I knew it was going to be a good night almost as soon as I left the house. The sky was clear, and as I turned the corner to walk down Queens Park Road I could see Orion the hunter standing squarely in the sky above where the Free Butt would be. So with this good omen warming my heart, I raced down the hill to see Monster Bobby who did not disappoint. The last time I saw him, he'd just had all his kit nicked. On the basis of this evening’s performance that may not have been too bad a thing. He was great; absolutely the best I've seen. If you've not seen him before, Monster Bobby is a one man band who delivers a set of short, personal songs (yes, songs) that seem unusually human in the electronica machine world. So with charm in full effect, a new haircut stolen off a teddy bear, strange sampled loops and acoustic guitar, and the odd bit of on the fly programming, Bobby thrilled us, and left the group of girls sat at the front gasping for more.

Next we had Komuso, who were right at the other end of the spectrum. Besuited and bespectacled behind a Mac, and a little more scruffy behind a set of electronic drums, they sat in candled darkness. What they produced was a dense collage of sound. You could hear the sound sources -musical and otherwise- ebbing and flowing. Sometimes the drums would rattle in with a crackling rhythm; sometimes they'd add odd abstract sounds. The PA was stretched in a way I'd not seen since Minimal Impact first snuck up on it. And given that it is a good PA down at the Free Butt, it was stretched from roaring bass down to clicking quiet. Cracking stuff.

After the density of Komuso I was a little afraid Rashamons grace would be crushed. But, back again as a three piece the boys did themselves proud (again) on a lengthy improvisation around one of their older pieces. The line up this time out was Mac, guitar and drum machine. The drum machine turned out to be a nice touch and added some meat to the lighter percussion the Mac provided. So they roared and soared, fluttering deceptively before bashing our ears with some serious battery. Absolutely ace. Which summed up the whole night: Ace.DJ CHEESEMASTER