Oxford bands review of Creepshow 2
Creepshow featuring Hexstatic + Digitonal + Media Lounge, The Zodiac, 21.10.05
Monday, 24 October 2005
Many a gig-goer has been heard to say of the interior of the Zodiac that it could really use a facelift, and that's what it got tonight - the Peepshow team certainly got their teeth into making the space their own, and the Hallowe'en theme is embraced so wholeheartedly that you could be forgiven for forgetting that the day itself is still a week and a half away. There are severed hands attached to the control booth, pumpkin lanterns lovingly carved with the Peepshow logo, projections from classic horror films in unison on every available wall - for which mention must be made of VJs Myogenic and Mach V - and the audience, clearly a step ahead of us newcomers, have gone all-out in their efforts to win the fancy dress competition. It all makes for the perfect atmosphere to enjoy a late Friday night of live electronic creepiness.
Starting the night off is the ambitious Digitonal and Media Lounge 'live rescore' of Stanley Kubrick's classic The Shining, comprising the images and selected dialogue from the film with new music performed live from laptop by Digitonal. The film is condensed, by necessity, but not at the expense of the plot; rather than cut any scenes entirely it seems it is the long, Kubrickian mood-shots that are contracted, which works well in adapting it for a club space. The source material is handled sensitively, staying faithful to the mood without being overly reverential, and Digitonal's music - classically-influenced melodic electronica, at times sparse and minimal, at others full and warm, always precise and deliberate, with skittering beats that nevertheless pack a punch when they need to - is perfectly judged to the pace of the film, giving us goosebumps when the blood first pours out of the walls. It broods when it should, builds with the menace of the film and kicks hard by the time the axe is swinging. With the film projected on the side walls of the Zodiac as well as the stage it's easy to get lost in it, as most present do; it's got to be a risk putting something like that on in a club but the crowd quickly rises to the challenge, and when Danny reaching for the handle of door 237 provokes a cry of 'don't do it!', you wonder if you're perhaps watching the start of some kind of twisted Sing-A-Long-A-Shining tradition. It would be beautiful if this performance took the place in the world now occupied by the dress-up singalong Rocky Horror Picture Show, as it's hard to think of a better way to warm up Hallowe'en night.
And then Hexstatic take the stage, with a Hallowe'en DJ/VJ set specially put together for Creepshow's second show - complete with homemade Hallowe'en masks - setting the tone with the Prodigy's 'Smack My Bitch Up' playing over cut-up extracts from the film 'Creepshow 2'. Their performance tonight is very much in the vein of the pop/techno crossover mashups beloved of 2manyDJs, but while 2manyDJs took the sheer detailed onslaught further than most other DJs, Hexstatic were probably doing it first and take it as far ahead again, with the cut-up visuals easily keeping pace with the relentlessly playful DJing. Their genius is in constructing themed medleys of sound and vision, borrowing liberally from the last few decades of popular culture with inspiring abandon, from freak-themed songs by Missy Elliot, Sugababes, Chic and Rick James playing under carved extracts of Tod Browning's film Freaks, to 'These Boots Were Made For Walking' into Adam Ant's 'Puss In Boots' via Destiny's Child's 'Bootylicious', climaxing with the introduction to seminal German submarine drama Das Boot, and so much more besides that we're hard pressed to remember even half of it the morning after. Hexstatic leap around genres and tempos as freely and skilfully as they leap around cultural references, with the Hallowe'en theme getting a fair push tonight: clips from The Exorcist over a drum and bass reworking of Tubular Bells are a particular favourite, along with the obligatory 'Thriller', at which point we start to realise that many of the tracks Hexstatic are using were playing downstairs at Boogie Basement on the way into the venue. But while downstairs they made us groan from lazy overuse, in Hexstatic's hands even tired party favourites like 'Groove Is In The Heart' have new life, and so we throw ourselves back into things with a 'jump'-themed medley, incorporating the sounds and images of House of Pain, Kris Kross and, for crap's sake, Van Halen. It is the perfect party DJ set for the perfect party, the music pausing after Hexstatic only to allow the announcement of the fancy dress competition - the mummy man wins; the runner up is, rather confusingly, Elvis - before Peepshow's resident DJ Paddy takes to the decks to round off the night. We leave in the small hours feeling like the discovery of Peepshow has opened a new world of clubbing delights, and feeling like idiots for taking two years to catch on.
By Sarah Morton.
Monday, 24 October 2005
Many a gig-goer has been heard to say of the interior of the Zodiac that it could really use a facelift, and that's what it got tonight - the Peepshow team certainly got their teeth into making the space their own, and the Hallowe'en theme is embraced so wholeheartedly that you could be forgiven for forgetting that the day itself is still a week and a half away. There are severed hands attached to the control booth, pumpkin lanterns lovingly carved with the Peepshow logo, projections from classic horror films in unison on every available wall - for which mention must be made of VJs Myogenic and Mach V - and the audience, clearly a step ahead of us newcomers, have gone all-out in their efforts to win the fancy dress competition. It all makes for the perfect atmosphere to enjoy a late Friday night of live electronic creepiness.
Starting the night off is the ambitious Digitonal and Media Lounge 'live rescore' of Stanley Kubrick's classic The Shining, comprising the images and selected dialogue from the film with new music performed live from laptop by Digitonal. The film is condensed, by necessity, but not at the expense of the plot; rather than cut any scenes entirely it seems it is the long, Kubrickian mood-shots that are contracted, which works well in adapting it for a club space. The source material is handled sensitively, staying faithful to the mood without being overly reverential, and Digitonal's music - classically-influenced melodic electronica, at times sparse and minimal, at others full and warm, always precise and deliberate, with skittering beats that nevertheless pack a punch when they need to - is perfectly judged to the pace of the film, giving us goosebumps when the blood first pours out of the walls. It broods when it should, builds with the menace of the film and kicks hard by the time the axe is swinging. With the film projected on the side walls of the Zodiac as well as the stage it's easy to get lost in it, as most present do; it's got to be a risk putting something like that on in a club but the crowd quickly rises to the challenge, and when Danny reaching for the handle of door 237 provokes a cry of 'don't do it!', you wonder if you're perhaps watching the start of some kind of twisted Sing-A-Long-A-Shining tradition. It would be beautiful if this performance took the place in the world now occupied by the dress-up singalong Rocky Horror Picture Show, as it's hard to think of a better way to warm up Hallowe'en night.
And then Hexstatic take the stage, with a Hallowe'en DJ/VJ set specially put together for Creepshow's second show - complete with homemade Hallowe'en masks - setting the tone with the Prodigy's 'Smack My Bitch Up' playing over cut-up extracts from the film 'Creepshow 2'. Their performance tonight is very much in the vein of the pop/techno crossover mashups beloved of 2manyDJs, but while 2manyDJs took the sheer detailed onslaught further than most other DJs, Hexstatic were probably doing it first and take it as far ahead again, with the cut-up visuals easily keeping pace with the relentlessly playful DJing. Their genius is in constructing themed medleys of sound and vision, borrowing liberally from the last few decades of popular culture with inspiring abandon, from freak-themed songs by Missy Elliot, Sugababes, Chic and Rick James playing under carved extracts of Tod Browning's film Freaks, to 'These Boots Were Made For Walking' into Adam Ant's 'Puss In Boots' via Destiny's Child's 'Bootylicious', climaxing with the introduction to seminal German submarine drama Das Boot, and so much more besides that we're hard pressed to remember even half of it the morning after. Hexstatic leap around genres and tempos as freely and skilfully as they leap around cultural references, with the Hallowe'en theme getting a fair push tonight: clips from The Exorcist over a drum and bass reworking of Tubular Bells are a particular favourite, along with the obligatory 'Thriller', at which point we start to realise that many of the tracks Hexstatic are using were playing downstairs at Boogie Basement on the way into the venue. But while downstairs they made us groan from lazy overuse, in Hexstatic's hands even tired party favourites like 'Groove Is In The Heart' have new life, and so we throw ourselves back into things with a 'jump'-themed medley, incorporating the sounds and images of House of Pain, Kris Kross and, for crap's sake, Van Halen. It is the perfect party DJ set for the perfect party, the music pausing after Hexstatic only to allow the announcement of the fancy dress competition - the mummy man wins; the runner up is, rather confusingly, Elvis - before Peepshow's resident DJ Paddy takes to the decks to round off the night. We leave in the small hours feeling like the discovery of Peepshow has opened a new world of clubbing delights, and feeling like idiots for taking two years to catch on.
By Sarah Morton.
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