(Planet Me)
Wednesday, May 08, 2019
 
UNKLE Royal Festival Hall London 19 April 2019

As the launch of their eight (or maybe ninth album), “The Road II : Lost Highway”, UNKLE presented a strange uneven, but sproadically thrilling look through their twenty five year history. With the night split into two parts (Act 1: “The Club”, and Act II : “Afterhours”), it was perhaps not quite what I expected. I’m not sure what I expected, maybe a night of moodier more introspective material, but this was a two hour collection of a live band meshing together a multitude of their songs into a cohesive, tidal wave of sound.

Built around a core live lineup of James Lavelle on decks, mixing, and keys, with a multi-instrumentalist guitar/bass/synth wizard Steven Weston, ample live drummer Alex Thomas, and cellist Philip Sheppard on four plinths, the first hour was a representation of the bands more clubby, driving moments, with songs blending into each other and around each other (a vocal here, a bassline there) in a well-rehearsed, fluid set that reminded me of nothing so much as mid 90’s Underworld where there was barely pause to take breath. The first half raced through instrumental versions of tracks such as “Chemistry” overlaid with sampled vocals from “Restless”, “Be There”, “Reign”, “Heaven” and countless others, relentlessly presented in a solid but insistent first hour, rising to a pounding tempo where the bizarrely seated venue became a full on disco frenzy of “I Feel Love”. The visuals – a gentle mix of abstract imagery that occasionally fell into simple massive flashing lights, like a light up dance floor, or perhaps an epileptic-fit inducing strobe attack, moved like a tide through the venue. “Heaven” (originally, staggeringly, a b-side of epic proportions), is still one of the best songs by any act of the past decade or so, and the venue shimmered with the recorded vocal of the departed Gavin Clark.

After an hour of disco crescendo’s and a hard, bracing rhythm, the night paused. Having built up to a climax, the second half was a more considered, slower paced set of traditional live performance and live vocals. It’s much more of a ‘gig’ and a paced comedown after the somewhat euphoric first half.

Part II: “Afterhours” was the aftermath – the legacy of the night before. It was a measured set of guest vocalists [mostly taken from the latest record], with Thom Smith of Editors emoting effectively through “The Other Side”, Leila Moss on “More with Less” and “Days And Nights” with Dhani Harrison, Robbie Furze on “Find An Outsider”, and EKSA on “Reign” and “In A State”. There’s no sign of the estranged Richard File, who was the bands voice on 2003’s superlative “Never Never Land”, but the bands forte, that of a dense, driving rhythm with dynamic strings and soaring vocals, are amply evidenced. The set ebbs and flows through the more song based part of the bands work : setting an emotional temperature, each song building and growing, until the final “In A State”, which sends the audience out on a peak, and a climax. It was kind of like great sex, but perhaps not love.

“the club”
The Road
Chemistry
Restless
Money And Run
Looking For The Rain
Reign
Be There
Cowboys Or Indians
Heaven
Sunrise
Touch Me
I Feel Love

“the aftermath”
Crucifixion (with Thom Smith)
Days and Nights
Reprise
Find An Outsider
The Other Side (with Thom Smith)
Lonely Soul (with ESKA)
Feel More With Less (with Leila Moss)
Touch Me (with Leila Moss)
Reign (with ESKA)
In A State (with Leila Moss)


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