Atlas Sound – Cargo, London 15/11/09

24 November 2009, 08:30 | Written by Ama Chana

(Live)

“You guys are great. This is just like playing in my house and hanging out. I’m going to text my mom”. You could say that Bradford Cox is in a good mood. He has giant grin on his face but don’t be fooled, dear reader. He’s only stepped on to British soil this morning and confessed he’s severely suffering a bad case of jetlag (“It gives me diarrhea … So if I have to go off, that’s why”). Sure, he is feeling a little rusty, playing alone (“The other guys had to go back to their jobs”) and the sets littered with mistakes and false starts, but the is such that the informal banter and off-the-cuff nature of performance is warmly received and appreciated by most present this evening.

It all begins with ‘Quick Canal’, where Cox is joined onstage by Stereolab’s lovely Laetitia Sadier (she earlier played a short opening solo set of songs from her new forthcoming solo record. Ps. I love her) singing her mantra-like vocals which she contributes to the Logos record. Cox lays down the pedal-looped guitar part before taking to the drum kit to lay down some volatile, scattered beats and impulsive accompaniments. And just before you think it can’t get any better, Sadier’s 10 year old son, Alex, walks onstage and treats us to some groovy interpretative dancing, much to everyone’s surprise, delight and amusement. You could really feel the collective glee and “Aww”.

Performing only with an acoustic guitar, harmonica and a selection of pedals to loop himself, slow down, distort, fracture, fuck up the music is a wonder to behold. He creates repeated loops to provide the foundations of an imaginary backing band. ‘Kid Klimax’, worked extremely well in this stripped back guise and ‘Attic Lights’ is delivered to dazzling effect. Infact, it seemed as if he got a real buzz out of working out each part, laying it down, adding harmonica, fucking it up with his pedal, looping it, adding another layer of guitar, playing drums, singing and pulling it off seamlessly. He performs ‘Quarantined’ in two parts (“See if you can guess which parts are which”) and a personal favourite ‘Sheila’ which deliciously opens with it’s sleepy, tired guitar motif before kicking into an infectiously pretty 50s pop ditty which defies it’s bleak lyrical content. (“And when we die, we’ll bury ourselves. Because no wants to die alone”). I can just imagine Dr Fox blaring that over drive-time.

Later, as part of the impromptu vibe of the show, Cox even makes time during the set to attempt a Pavement song… He can only get the first part though, which he is highly proud of, before seeking the audience to help out the rest. ( “I think it’s an A… or was that G?…Er… ”). Perhaps in any other setting, people would feel annoyed and slightly peeved but tonight, such is a atmosphere that he’s given a free pass to subject us to whatever his heart desires. He could loop himself vomiting and we’d still cheer. He doesn’t, sadly, but he does treat us to a new untitled song he dreamed up whilst on the plane over (“This was about me and friend going into the woods… with a gun”) as a final track. It’s clearly a work-in-progress, but thankfully returned with an encore of ‘Logos’ much to the crowds relief, who left on a feel-good high as they filtered out. I looked around Cargo and all I could see was smiling faces. Smiling faces and beards. But it was a real privilege to see him in such an environment. Like it was his living room and we were hanging out. It’s not going to last though. Because when you think about, and I’m not being OTT when I say this, I
honestly believe that Bradford Cox is the most important figure in alternative music today. When you look how consistent and excellent his output is, with both Atlas Sound and Deerhunter, and how regularly he seems to be dropping records and how it seems to resonate with people, it just can’t…