Brixton’s Phobophobes have Liverpool Sound City off to a flying start tonight (3 May) with a well-drilled live show stacked with off-kilter hits from their LP Miniature World and new cuts from their forthcoming Killing Joke-produced album.
Walking into the intimate environs of the grungy 24 Kitchen Street venue in Liverpool’s Baltic triangle to the sound of their single ‘Never Never’, we're immediately drawn in. The six-piece, led by enigmatic Londoner Jamie Taylor, deliver glorious synth-led crescendos and a haunting chorus that you can imagine would get the thumbs up from Echo and The Bunnymen’s Ian McCulloch if he walked in.
Their sonics subvert the excessively polished feel of most chart guitar music and they push to the forefront a darker aesthetic that’s left-field, yet loaded with strong enough melodies to gatecrash the mainstream.
Vintage synths, bonkers psychedelic-tinged guitar lines; and fierce, brutal drumming that gets the band’s blood pumping, the whole show begins to feel like a catharsis. It feels like the band are sweating out the anguish incited by the depraved aspects of the Western world.
Of their other already released material, ‘Child Star’ and 'Where Is My Owner?’ are stand outs and as we sing the dissenting lyrics back at them. Frontman Taylor, meanwhile, remains in a trance, gradually building a transcendent atmosphere with every passing chord change.
New material, meanwhile, is hard-hitting but doesn't offer the chance to ride along with something warmly familiar because the album's still under wraps. We're left to look forward to being able to change that when the Youth-produced album is released later this year.
But we're in the minority tonight even noticing a distinction between old and new because Phobophobes are an entirely new band to most. The band are big in London but in the early stages of expanding their horizons. Noticing the audience become so easily enveloped in their world, it looks like building this band up is going to be a breeze.
“Get a load of this!” Snapchat’s the woman next to me to her friend. Extremely zealous applause between tunes also a great indication of things to come. And it's completely justified to see this sort of reaction around us because the band are locked and loaded and ready for the big time without any pruning. The tunes are there and the sonics are honed. Bigger things await without a shadow and when, like tonight, that feeling is shared in the room, it's a great moment to be a part of.
Phobophobes played:
'Never Never'
'Moustache Mike'
'Neg space'
Where Is My Owner?'
'Blind Muscle'
'Human Baby'
'Child star'
'No flavour'
