All Seeing Hand are touring a new album and I think they are perhaps one of the most important New Zealand Bands around at present. I did see them live last year at The Darkroom when they played a short set on the night of the cancelled Darkspace night, where a lot of the bands didn't make it to town due to heavy rain and flooding.
I was hoping to pick up a copy of the new album but it turns out that it will probably be a download only release although did have cassettes of it but they all sold out in the previous gig in Dunedin and I don't have a tape deck anymore.
The gig was at a Cafe in Lyttelton called The Lyttelton Coffee Co, My first visit and according to a fellow I meet at the gig from a Facebook group I belong to, has pretty regular gigs.
It was a pretty informal setup as punters slowly drifted in to the venue, where the musicians had set up their gear in one corner of the old brick walled building and the tables had been moved aside for standing room, a lot like Space Academy in Christchurch where I had seen several gigs over the last couple of years.
First up of the night was a female trio called Fem Scream, they started off with some sampled loops just left on repeat then they left their equipment for a while then, drifted back one at a time and started adding in their electronics and guitar effects to create a sonic soundscape to to far removed from Throbbing Gristle's efforts back in the late 70's. They did a lot of screaming vocals which were pretty much undecipherable but it was mildly interesting.
Next was Motte, a solo act with violin and electronics. I really like Motte, I have her vinyl record, which is great and I enjoyed her set this time a lot more than the last time I saw her play, although a lot of people talked all the way through her set which was not loud so it was a bit distracting.
All Seeing Hand then hit the floor after changing into their outrageous costumes they play in. It was difficult to see as the place was pretty full now and as there was no stage, I could not see the band too well from in the crowd. They play a kinda of Industrial Techno music with drums and electronics and the singer doing all sorts of pyrotechnics with his vocalizing and throat singing. I did recognize at least one song from a previous record I have but it is the sort of music that takes a lot of listens to get ingrained into your head and is not exactly infused with catchy melodies, but I guess most of the material was from the new record and it was great throbbing toe tapping head nodding music and I really enjoyed their set.
