The night Threatmantics come to town, the promoters, Don’t Die Just Yet, corral us into the bottom bar. The crowd is comprised almost entirely of scene kids and student hipsters, smiling and doing little dances for each other to the tunes that spilled from the DDJY decks. It’s enough to fill a wizened heart with joy and hope.
But we fear, a little, for Threatmantics.
Their music isn’t stomp-along footcandy. It’s primal and occasionally nightmarish. More Eraserhead than Final Destination.
We make the mistake of underestimating the audience. Thankfully, the band don’t. They begin almost apologetically, summoning up some ancient sonic demon to empower them for the rest of the set with a knock on the drums, a few scrapes of the viola and a clatter of the least digitally-enhanced guitar you are ever going to hear.
From that inauspicious beginning, we’re drawn into their singular vision. A unique line-up (guitar, viola, drummer who plays keyboards) isn’t the only reason they sound original. Their distillation of In Utero-era Nirvana, early PJ Harvey, the Velvets and Fairport Convention (‘James Lemain’ is a direct descendant of ‘Matty Groves’) fixes blocks of musical Lego that haven’t been joined together before.
It’s rare and thrilling to witness something that sounds so original.
And by the time they play ‘Don’t Care’, which draws a ripple of recognition from the crowd, Upbeat Love doesn’t seem such an ironic title for their debut album.
Very, very good.
©Adam Walton
2010
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