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Cava brut. Brut aftershave. Brut hardly conjures up thoughts of good quality and bore rockers Art Brut do nothing to alter this perception. A shame really because with a bit more energy and excitement, they would be much improved. A flabby set ensues with releases, ‘Emily Kane’ and ‘My Little Brother’ sounding as if they have all but given up on life. Which they should. Because quite frankly we don’t want to know who fattie sexually stalled with. Nor do we care that they’ve formed a band. What we want is the big players of raucous and riotous beats to come out and shake our worlds up.
So it’s a bloody good job that LCD Soundsystem are here to get our hearts pumping and pulses racing again. The bass line of ‘Movement’ throbs through the Academy and those who had but minutes ago been comatosed by the dreary drone of the brut, are injected with a blasting electro punk hit.
But whilst the sound is highly charged and dance inducing, music maestro and front man extraordinaire, James Murphy isn’t. Instead he possesses that magnetic Ian Curtis like intensity that envelops you into his world of overpacked parties with Daft Punk blaring out, once hip and happening, now hip replacing scenesters clamouring for a piece of the action and fond memories of favourite gigs, all set to a disco thump.
Heavier than you’d expect, but crucially without being overpowering, LCD’s dulcet disco works the crowd into a fired up frenzy. ‘Daft Punk Is Playing At My House’ whips up a storm of noise from the appreciative audience and soars into a glorious, galvanic climax.
Similarly, ‘Disco Infiltrator’ penetrates the floor and its infectious iridescence leaves no prisoners. With our world’s shook up by these beat droppers, it’s time to go content that for one night we’ve been able to gorge ourselves on a hunky slice of their enigmatic energy.
