We’re on the final day of DRILL and the crowds are massing for Mercury winners Young Fathers and the festival’s centrepiece of Wire and Swans on the same stage. Meanwhile, the SOURCE team has been banned from using the word ‘krautrock’ and are already looking forward to a bit of a lie down. One last push.
The Fly, The Hope
“We are The Fly and we’re here to ask one question only”, announces Colin Newman, welcoming us to the worst-kept secret of DRILL, as Wire (for it is they) break out the tingling intro to their classic ’78 single ‘I Am The Fly’. It’s a quick and loud set, firing out obscurities from across the decades (‘Advantage In Height’, ‘Attractive Space’) as Newman and Graham Lewis play good cop/bad cop with the audience requests (‘Ambulance Chasers’? “We haven’t written that one yet.” ‘Our Swimmer’? “Fuck off!”). Most of their fans are already down the road at The Old Market, either inside waiting for the band’s eventual Swans collaboration, or still stuck queuing, but for the few dozen who gambled on this evening’s opening Hope slot, Wire deliver with all the energy and spirit of their art school days. (SH)
Vincent Vocoder Voice, Bleach
Tonight we find the hitherto clown-faced art rocker unmasked and a little unsure of himself, either because his band’s aggressive onslaught relies on the disguise or because they’ve found themselves playing to a handful of punters on the edge of town. Though the five-piece sometimes struggles to maintain the momentum, the strength of the songs is such that those who made it along could hardly complain they came away short changed. At their best, VVV deliver a bewildering array of frantic riffs, all stops and starts and unexpected shifts in timing and tone. Fortunately, being a Brighton band, there should be plenty more chances to catch them on a better day. (BB)
Young Fathers, The Haunt
Young Fathers (pictured) were already booked for DRILL when their surprise Mercury Music Prize win brought them to the nation’s attention, but credit to them for sticking with this, inevitably rammed, Sunday afternoon spot. Opening with grim concentration, G Hastings floods the air with ear-splitting siren sounds as stand up drummer Steven Morrison pounds a martial beat on his kit. It’s a disorientating experience: while everyone’s tuned in to the rap and soul interplay of Hastings, Alloysious Massaquoi and Kayus Bankole, our bodies are being buffeted by bass so loud it sucks the air from our lungs and sparks explosions of light in our skulls. Young Fathers’ turn in an industrial strength hip hop show, they don’t just call a track ‘War’ for nothing. (SH)
Written In Waters, Bleach
We’d wager there’s at least one or two ex-metallers in Written In Waters, judging by the number of ponytails on stage and the sheer volume mustered by the band’s rock elements whenever they decide to let rip. This festival slot is the band’s first appearance in a while and the first outing for new keyboard recruit, Joe Habberlywob (we’re not sure if that’s a stage name or not). However, as ever, the main attraction is Beth Cannon’s incredible operatic vocals. Under the aggressive strobe lighting Beth comes across like a modern day Siouxsie Sioux with a thousand-yard stare, yet her between-song introductions reveal an affable, almost bubbly side to the would-be diva. While the mid-set songs veer into technical and mathsy mood music, they are bookended by a couple of devastating tunes that balance the band’s attention to detail with a sense of purpose that makes one hell of an impact. (BB)
Samaris, Green Door Store
With ears still ringing from Young Fathers earlier on, we forgo the queue for more punishment from Swans and elect for the far gentler sounds of Icelandic trio Samaris. Flanked by vocalist Jófríður Ákadóttir and clarinettist Áslaug Brún Magnúsdóttir, programmer Þórður Kári Steinþórsson washes us down with soft pulsing beats and rippling synth patterns. While Jófríður sings each song in her native tongue, she makes a special effort to connect with us sleepy Brightonians. Introducing the echoed ambience of ‘Hafið’, we learn that, “This song is for all of you who live by the ocean and how it’s all very difficult. Being alone in a boat. All that stuff.” Informed they have one last song before curfew, Samaris stretch the insomniac rave flashbacks of ‘Hrafnar’ (“It’s about the ravens”) out for over 10 minutes. Which, actually, is punk as fuck. (SH)
Swans, The Old Market
Everyone knew that Swans (pictured), closing the final day of DRILL in a venue known for its sound, would be loud. But no one could have predicted quite how life-affirmingly loud. Frontman Michael Gira summoned the chaos, waving his arms and hair as his rogue’s gallery of musicians sweated their way to apocalypse behind him. True, this was no easy ride, but neither was it unlistenable. Buried within each repeating riff or spoken incantation lay a melody or – dare we say it – groove that made for pure catharsis. At the close, Wire (surely the hardest working band this weekend) joined the line-up for a customary version of their track, ‘Drill’. “They are my childhood heroes,” Gira offered – but however good they were/are, there remains not a band in the land that can follow Swans. (JK)
DRILL:BRIGHTON, Various venues, Sunday 7th December 2014
Words by Ben Bailey, Jake Kennedy and Stuart Huggett
Photos by Jon Southcoasting and Mike Tudor
The SOURCE team covered all four days of DRILL: check out our reviews of Thursday, Friday and Saturday. There’s also more photos from the festival here.
