Still Vital: This Is Not This Heat, Live in London

11 February 2018, 10:44 | Written by Adam Elmahdi

(Live)

(This Heat) (This is Not This Heat)

The late, great John Peel once said “I get asked to play more music like This Heat, but to my knowledge there is no other music like This Heat”. For those who had the pleasure to witness them in the intimate confines of Dalston's Cafe Oto last night, that statement still holds true.

Having shaken up the late '70s London alternative scene with their unapologetically avant-garde sound, fusing the motorik influences of Can with elements of tape music, free jazz, noise and punk, the Camberwell three-piece split after six years, two albums and an EP, but reformed in 2016 to honour the 40th anniversary of their formation.

Founding member Gareth Williams sadly passed in 2001 (hence the "this is not") but Charleses Bullen and Hayward's expanded 7-piece ensemble prove themselves to be a force to be reckoned with, ornamenting and augmenting the menace and thrill of the source material with clarinets, marimbas, melodicas and around fifteen thousand effects pedals.

Seguing from atonal squalls of noise to pulverising post-punk at a blink of an eye, it's certainly far from easy listening, but Hayward's unwavering grin during the scintillating closing run of "Sleep", "24 Track Loop" and "Health and Efficiency" suggests both band and audience are fully aware that (This Is Not) This Heat remain as exciting, uncompromising and vital as they were in 1976.