Found & Down the Tiny Steps – Live, Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh, Thursday 28th February 2008
I love these two bands, absolutely love ‘em, so tonight was a bit of a special day in the gig calendar of Toad.
Down the Tiny Steps are a sort of folky, electro, Scottish almost-hip-hoppy-at-times group based around the fantastic songwriting of Johnnie Common. The group has had a rough time recently, losing the drummer and bass guitar player (in Johnnie’s words, ‘probably the two best musicians in the group’) because it was drowning out the rest of the music a little too much. I’ve seen them as a six-piece a couple of times and, although I really liked the sound, I can understand Johnnie’s decision, although it was clearly one he really didn’t enjoy making.
Anyway, what are they like now? Well this was only their second gig as a four-piece, so there must have been some nerves, but I didn’t notice any. And ultimately, I think Johnnie was right. With a less overwhelming sound the eccentricities of the electronica and the rambling monologues of the vocals take a more prominent position, taking them slightly out of the guitar-based indie sphere whose fringes they inhabited, and into more quirky, individual territory.
They’re playing at this year’s Homegame Festival up in Fife, so I’ll get another chance to see them quite soon, which I’m really looking forward to. The new songs sounded excellent, and old favourites like Aye Spy and Photosynth sounded brilliant with the new setup. Onwards and up the Tiny Steps!
Down the Tiny Steps – Photosynth
Down the Tiny Steps – Aye Spy
Down the Tiny Steps – DtTS @ The Movies Part 2: Nightmare On Renfrew Street
Found are a different proposition altogether. Instead of juggling their setup they are honing it. You may remember my review of their album This Mess We Keep Reshaping being a little bit ambivalent. On one hand I loved what I was hearing, but on another I’m not sure I’d quite ‘got it’ yet. Well I have now. And so, it appears, have they. The first time I saw them was at their album launch, at last year’s Halloween Fence Club. There they were inventive and unpredictable, ramshackle and energetic. Here, although the energy was by no means diminished, they were as tight as and twelve-year-old altar boy. The brilliance of their album, which took me a little too long to discover, was delivered with joyous precision. Ziggy Campbell is turning into a fucking terrific front man too – energetic and charismatic, but with characteristically Scottish self-mocking humour as well.
The songs are brilliant, and it’s amazing how much of this album is acoustic. When I listen to their record I hear something that sounds really rather electronic, but Campbell doesn’t put down his acoustic guitar all night. So it’s not folky at all, but it’s not exactly electronica either. Whatever it is, it’s a show these guys have tuned to perfection over the last year and if there’s much more of this to come from them, then Scottish music might just have yet another gem to celebrate and gloat to their Southern cousins over.
Found – See Ferg’s In London
Found – Reshaping
Found – Closed Time Like Loops
Down the Tiny Steps sounds pretty good, but the vocals are sung through the nose a bit more than I like. The Photosynth tune reminds me of King Biscuit Time. I’m liking Found a bit better, and it also has a definite Beta Band/King Biscuit Time/Steven Mason vibe to my ears.
“tight as a twelve-year-old altar boy’? now that’s a fucking brilliant image.
Found’s a little hit & miss with me – love See Ferg’s…, can take or leave Reshaping, don’t like …Loops.
Still trying to work out what I think of DtTS. No doubt, I’ll let you know in due course.
Well Johnnie’s vocals are a bit of an acquired taste. Personally I think it’s great stuff but I’d imagine that’s where the stumbling block is. Also, if the lineup changes a lot and things are a bit unstable it makes it hard for a fanbase to take hold.
Oh, it’s not the vocals I have an issue with – I love the burr – moreso the choppiness of the compositions. It works superbly in Ferg’s, yet not so much in t’others. & I adore You’re Quite The Catch or whatever its called: it’s mix of electronic/electric & acoustic has an almost perfect sloppy, feet dragging charm.
Whoops, I was talking about Down the Tiny Steps. Found have tricky moments for other reasons. I’d guess it will all make sense live, since you were a bit like myself, slowly easing your way from liking them to loving them.
Zoinks.
Well, again, no problem with DtTS’s vocals. Just working my way through the music.
[...] go into it too much, save to say that their lineup is even more slimline now than it was the last time I saw them. The hole in the lineup left no corresponding hole in the music however, which is a sort of bizarre [...]