Well for pedlars of post-rave, electro mayhem things seem pretty tranquil walking up to Creep Show’s second album launch gig at the ACCA on Friday evening. The sun still has warmth, the punters lounge around the campus lawns, the SU bar has the doors flung open, tatty umbrellas up and the beer is good. Plus over there, camped around a picnic table are the band themselves, Stephen ‘Mal’ Mallinder (Cabaret Voltaire, etc), Phil Winter (Tunng, etc), Ben ‘Benge’ Edwards (John Foxx And The Maths, etc) and US tunesmith John Grant, all looking pastoral in shorts and flip-flops as they banter and hand-shake before their show.
Mallinder, Winter and Edwards have generated vibrant beat-rooted electronica as co-conductors of Wrangler for well over a decade now. Along the way they met vocalist extraordinaire (and Wrangler fan) Grant, compared notes and from there Creep Show emerged in all its distorted glory. Now four years on from the spiky shake up of their debut ‘Mr Dynamite’ comes the release of ‘Yawning Abyss’, a wild sonic stab at post-capitalist sensibilities which we are here to celebrate.
But first up at this surreal party night Brighton-based experimental artist I Am Fya offers up a stunning sound art experience from her recently completed ‘2nd Home’ project. This is electronic music with trap-beat tensions and sound system density, performed with presence and a narrative flow. It’s no wonder the ranks of curious and committed swell as I Am Fya’s set unfolds, telling the story of her prolonged pandemic stay in Barbados with her unwell parents through a weave of taped conversations, field recordings and percussive frequencies. Crunching beats, sound fragments and an eerie drone make for a restless opening before the single ‘The Sun Will Kill Me’ breezily reflects on a friendship the artist struck up during her Barbadian trip with Amiya, the daughter of her father’s carer. Framed by visual clips of a seaside trek, the song’s skipping dubstep and buoyant hook of Amiya’s singing shine out above the deep bass judders that vibrate the hall’s floor.
From here the mix finds more room for the fine detail that personalises I Am Fya’s music. Highlights impress: the way the live vocals coo and curl with the visuals; the subtle rhythms taken from the rustling leaves; and the soulfully sung phrasing of “the last time I saw you” which brings an aching emotion to the soundscape. Showing a deft choice of sample I Am Fya includes a joyous clip of an indignant Eartha Kitt dismantling the meaning of compromise in relationships, that’s perfect both in intent and execution. Used to fuel the set’s final song sequence where the ratcheted beats and the soaring live vocals assert the need to “fall in love with myself”, this half hour spent with I Am Fya has a mighty impact. There’s a wow amongst the whoops from the watchers as she farewells and exits.
Tables get lifted and shifted for a Creep Show set-up which stretches across a lengthy central trestle with drum pads to one side and a synth bank to the other. With so much digital kit, cables and connectors you wonder what could possibly go wrong. Well the first number, ‘Endangered Species’ from their debut, answers that question. Mallinder’s mic stand cranes over, his laptop just gets saved as it tips from its station while the Creep Show big beats and Grant’s doomy vocoder warnings power on stoically. Still, as the band eases into ‘Bellows’, the new album’s opener, signs are things aren’t permanently spooked. The steam-punk electro chug pumps around the song’s swirling eighties hook, echoing through from the Pet Shop Boys to latter day Daft Punk, and the frenetic blips and buzz around Grant’s swooning synth solo sees Creep Show regaining their always giddy equilibrium.
It may be billed as an album launch but tonight the running order gets juggled for the live iteration. Luckily that means that Mallinder gets to drain his continuing frustration into an aggressive take on the venomous ‘Matinee’. All whispered and brooding on the new album, this evening the band are stomping from the off, taking the track close to early Wrangler rawness and spitting out the biting “that guy would sell his children” lines with added disdain. The gig seems to pivot around this bruising encounter and as the visuals switch from hyper-scrambled to more identifiably filmic, Creep Show scampishly find their groove on the super vamping, electro funky ‘Modern Parenting’ from ‘Mr Dynamite’. Sensing familiarity, waves of bobbing and weaving ripple through the crowd stirred up by Benge Edwards physical snare thwack and Grant’s deliciously soulful harangue, “did you ever stop to think what you’re gonna do / when the doggy jumps the fence and puts its eye on you?”.
Tails up, Creep Show then take a gleeful romp through more ‘Yawning Abyss’ cuts: the dark lounge rhumba of ‘Bungalow’ where Grant’s deep croon lurks inside the secrets of “cologne and smoke”; the frenetic video gaming rush of ‘Wise’ with its broken beat angles and razored snare; the Mal and John proto rap partnership on the tub-thumping ‘Moneyback’; and the hypnotic electro-skank of ‘Steak Diane’, all Max Headroom stutters and precision bleeps. On the night maybe the prize-winner is the absurdist art scat of ‘Yahtzee!’, where Grant pairs “pinochle” with “buckle” and “sister” with “Twister” while introducing an unsettling seediness to some twitchy Le Blanc funk.
There’s an understated rapport about Creep Show which makes the gig compelling as well as sonically strong. While Grant and Mallinder lean in and out stage centre, Ben Edwards focuses on his pads and the physical efforts of backbone beat production while Phil Winter fixes on the synths with an occasional nod at the projections. Still, hips sometimes swivel and heels often twist as the band sense the Creep Show momentum coming together. Plus there’s occasional banter though nothing as obvious as song announcements. There’s no big sell going on here, just honest endeavour that rounds off with the gorgeous ‘Yawning Abyss’ title track, a song that glides melodically (think Donna Summers’ ‘State Of Independence’) but oozes with irony and pathos – “Come sink with me into the yawning abyss/you’d have to be a crazy person to assert you never ever wanted this”.
After a breather the foursome return for a swift but skippy swagger through the hyper funked, wacked out ‘Pink Squirrel’ which John Grant recalls was a character conjured up by his grandma (that’s inspiration for you). The song represents the last “special treat” from Creep Show tonight and the set finishes on schedule leaving plenty of time for Bella Union boss (and former Cocteau Twin) Simon Raymonde to give us an exemplary DJ set in the bar (a heady trip from Culture to The Associates). Much more than a warm-up for the forthcoming festival shows or a plug-the-album obligation, this Creep Show more than delivered all the thrills and spills you need.
Find out more about the upcoming autumn shows at ACCA here.
The Attenborough Centre For Creative Arts, Friday 16th June 2023
Words by John Parry
Photos by Charlotte Horton
