Upset the Rhythm – Mahjongg and Caldera Lakes

On the 23rd October Laurie and I journeyed long and hard to Barden’s Boudoir to see Mahjonng. In support were Caldera Lakes and the solo projects of the two band members, Married in Berdichev! and Kevin Shields. The night was put on by the record label Upset the Rhythm that recently celebrated its 5th anniversary, they put on a reasonably priced bunch of gigs in the London area, Indian Jewelry are playing on 13th November, as well as releasing music by the likes of BARR and Lucky Dragons.

Married in Berdichev! is Britney Goulds and she came out, knelt down on the floor, blew into a half filled bottle and turned on the loop machine.  Her vocals seemed more lamenting than when she sang in Caldera Lakes and the organisation seemed much simpler, with her mainly rocking back and forth shaking various jangly instruments.

Kevin Shields, the other half of Caldera Lakes goes also by the name of Eva Aguila, utilises a 35mm Film Synchroniser she obtained from Universal Studios, which she runs audio tape through and then shakes it all up in frantic motions that would make an analogue film-audio editor cry to make an intense sound. Both sets seemed to be cut short due to technical reasons which were later explained by pieces of their equipment having been stolen in Rome recently and the replacements seemed to be playing funny buggers.

When the two came together as Caldera Lakes they were like, unsurprisingly, the synergising part of a Venn diagram bringing their different styles of experimental music together, only this time Eva joined Britney in kneeling on the floor. Caldera Lakes paint pictures of Modernistic Brutalist architecture, some people hate it but a fair few like it being around.

Mahjongg, much like Barak Obama are based in Illinois, and could be described as a mixture of dance pop and industrial experimental. Like Obama they were not born in Illinois rather hail from various small towns in Missouri. Mahjonng are 5 piece band and bar Hunter Husar on keyboard and synth they all switch between different instruments, apart from during one song where the whole band start playing percussion (there were two drum kits while the other three beat a suitcase, petrol can and a severely sad looking cymbal). The poor little cymbal, I felt a strong desire to report the what could be loosely described as the guitarist, that I was going to report him to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Savage inDentation [RSPSD].

Mahjongg were great to watch, they seemed all over the place but in a ramshackle performance sense rather than disorganised. I liked the way they dedicated a song in protest of DJ Grooveriders incarceration in the United Arab Emirates with the comment that he had been pardoned already and due for release soon.

After the sets Laurie and I had a chat with the artists and then the people who set up and run Upset the Rhythm, it was the first time anyone from Hundreds & Thousands had did this and we were fairly uncertain on the etiquette, what can I say, they never had a talking to music-men class at finishing school.

Filed under: Gigs, Caldera Lakes, live, london, Mahjonng, Upset the Rhythm