Crystal Castles | GIG
The Canadian duo were supposed to be too cool to last – a combustible, anarchic wall of noise destined for but one album alone. They proved everyone wrong though, with the follow up II embellishing their sound with more layers and pop sensibilities and this month’s III, which manages the same feat once more. It’s with this trilogy of current classics that they hit up the Academy this week.
Alice Glass and Ethan Kath are the pair behind the touring whirlwind that is the Castles. Having laid waste to festival stages across the country this summer, it is telling of their pigeonhole-dodging sound that they were equally able to take on the rock fans and metalheads of the Reading Festival, while also appealing to the urban sound-seeking hordes of east London’s Lovebox.
As combative as they are on record, live they’re a whole other proposition. Augmented with a live drummer now, to embellish Kath’s nihilistic beats, they have become famed for their stage-slaying presence, and Glass’s performance in particular. Seemingly sporting a different coloured barnet for every tour, and frequently covered with bandages from injuries sustained by previous gigs’ exuberance, Glass is a screaming, howling enigma, prone to throwing herself in to the crowd in a seething, writhing ball of manic, uncontrolled energy.
Where electronic music’s more readily associated with dance music’s party vibes and collective euphoria, the Castles harness a brash, provocative punk attitude that couldn’t be further removed. One of this decade’s true originals.
Academysat, nov 24
Doors at 7.30pm | £17.50
Tube | Brixton
o2academybrixton.co.uk
Mencap Little Noise Sessions | GIG
Six nights of quality music for the charity that supports people with learning difficulties. Gary Barlow and Olly Murs bring a pop element to the first two nights, Richard Hawley and The Maccabees follow, then nu-folksters Noah and the Whale (right) play the penultimate night while Amy Macdonald closes the week in style.
St John-at-Hackney Church
nov 19-25. 7pm £27.50
Lower Clapton Road, E5 0PD
Tube | Hackney Central
littlenoisesessions.org.uk
Connected | CLUB
Tech-house superstar Robert Dietz, who favours analogue kit for real organic sounds, headlines the Connected bunch’s latest party. He’ll be joined by a heap of artists from rising Leeds deep house and nu-disco label Love Not Money Records, including label head Luke Pompey with Kezla, Real Nice, Mark Derry and Ricky Torres.
Cable | sat, nov 24. 10pm-6am £12+
33 Bermondsey Street, SE1 2EG
Tube | London Bridge
cable-london.com
Astral Circus | CLUB
Audio and visual artists collaborate at this psy-trance “multi-dimensional event” that organisers say “provides a perfect environment to immerse the senses and stimulate the mind”. Four-piece OOOD headline, supported by Journey and Tantrix live, with trance legend Nick Sentience, Nikki S and PsiBindi, too. Out of this world.
Jamm | fri, nov 23. 10pm-6am £10+
261 Brixton Road, SW9 6LH
Tube | Brixton
astralcircus.net
Alanis Morissette | GIG
As Ed Byrne once noted, the only thing ironic about Alanis’s hit song of the same name and its wayward lyrical interpretation of irony, was that it was written by someone with no understanding of what irony is at all. She’s still big business though, and in town to support
her Havoc And Bright Lights LP.
wed, nov 28. 6.30pm £35+
The O2, Peninsula Square, SE10 0DX
Tube | North Greenwich
theo2.co.uk
Kitsune winter party | CLUB
The fashion and record label celebrates both the release of their latest compilation, Kitsune Maison 14 – The Absinthe Edition, and the festive season with this winter bash. French electronic pioneer Etienne De Crecy headlines, along with the producer Fred Falke, DFA’s Nancy Wang, Logo, Punks Jump Up (above) and more.
Fire | sat, nov 24. 10pm-5am £12.50+
South Lambeth Road, SW8 1RT
Tube | Vauxhall
firelondon.net
The Feelers | GIG
The Kiwi soft rockers have been around since the early Nineties and have lived through alt-rock’s arrival, its dismissal and return. Asked upon the release of their The Best: ‘98-’08 in 2008, whether they’d be around in 10 years, vocalist and guitarist James Reid replied, “Easily!” They play Camden’s Dingwalls on Thursday, too.
Walkabout | Wed, nov 21. 7pm £10
56 Shepherd’s Bush Green, W12 8QE
Tube | Shepherd’s Bush
walkabout.eu.com
