A Night Of Progressive Electronica at the Fox Cabaret with DJ Zeyda, Iain Howe, Mount Pleasant and Carbon Mass

By Keir Nicoll

This night was for all of the progressive live electronica-heads out there, who have been missing the onwards course of this vein of music for the last two years. More people are getting into the style of music that incorporates vocals, live instrumentation and live-electronics. In fact, it's pretty popular now, which comes as somewhat of a surprise for those of us who have been following the evolution of music for the past decade or so. But then, maybe it's not surprising, as this is generally a cutting-edge style of song. 

The players on this Thursday night were DJ Zeyda, Iain Howe, Mount Pleasant and Carbon Mass, in that progressive order. DJ Zeyda opened the night, for some time spinning and then was the smooth segue between all of the other remaining acts. She opened with dreamy deep house music with pounding bass and ethereal vocals, with breaks over pulsing snares and passionate soaring voice. Vocals into the hope of freedom in clubland. Her set was reminiscent of rave music, as the higher-calibre sounds entered into the mix and strung-out the journey of the song. There were hovering sounds, waiting and weighting over the beat, with sensitive chord progressions and rising overall vocal melodies. The standard DJ breaks with the pulsing drum n' bass dropping in for the effect of the carriage of the music. 

DJ Zeyda played probably a half-dozen or so songs, over the course of an hour, making each number last. She mixed in some more spacey sounds, then some echoing, ghostly vocals and programmatic percussive beats and high-hat riffs. She was wearing shining headphones and necklace, with a mellow yellow shirt with blue air in the background. She moved into a more intense, pushing, driving beat and then pulled it back, dropping it in again.

I wondered if people would actually dance. People were out with their friends, falling in love, happy to be in public. The DJ was a powerful woman DJ wizard, holding us at the tip of her fingers. People wanted to jump onstage and kiss the DJ, after drinking suggestive gin and tonics. 

There were the hand-claps coming in and we were all alright with the sound of it, as it released from the fronts of the speakers. More spacious room between the notes. Then the rising synth-tones and then, into the dropped beat again. DJ music is sometimes repetitive but creates an overall journey that they take you on. People started coming out to dance, lured to the floor. There were red carpet circles on the walls. Elegant and classy, with a female goddess of the club world. Beats, chanting grooves of rhythm and dropping bass. Pumping up the jam. Vibes of dance beats leading into an orbital dimension. The more progressive V.I.P. Treatment this night. Ranging from trippy vocals and vibes into more ambient sounds with the hint of dubstep. 

When Iain Howe finally came to the stage, with a vocal-mic and an electric guitar, the crowd was ready for what the ensembles had to offer. He started with a descending chord-line, then dissonant and harmonic chords. He sounded a bit shoegazey, with grungy tension. A screen of revolving stars were behind him, revealed from the opening red theatre-curtains, apropos, as the Fox Cabaret used to be a theatre. Then a heavy bass and drums beat dropped in. One guy on guitar and vocals, another on DJ electronics and computers. Swirling red matter and ethereal vocals with effects-driven guitar. Break to the timbral vocals, sounding like Sigur Ros and Thom Yorke's Atoms For Peace. There was an image of a shooting star onscreen, people yelling and cheering. Rapid-picking on the guitar next, with more falsetto singing and dubsteppy beats. People randomly meeting. The singer-guitarist, wearing a stripey jail shirt. There was a sound of Bonobo and Grimes throughout the night. There was a zebra head on the wall that seemed to be smiling at us. There were high-pitched, high-intensity sustained notes on the guitar, with staggered beats from the DJ. As the singer said, “Fuck these theatrics, hit it to the max!” there was moonlight on the surface of rippling water for the visuals. Then, slow strumming with more spacious beats. The next song was vocals with no guitar, moving trees onscreen, with the vocalist dancing and sounding like Coldplay. More dance tracks. Bubbles in an acid-bath onscreen, the vocalist singing “Does she pull me in?” An ascending, almost funky bassline, with slow descending notes. “This is our last set – yo!” the singer yelled. The last song was slower, called “Way Back Home,” with placed bass and guitar notes and a solar-system of brilliantly shining crystalline lighting onscreen.

They changed the order of the set so that Mount Pleasant, who were supposed to Headline, came on next. They were two DJs, one with a synthesizer with a rotating cast of vocalists, starting off with a man and a woman who sang ably and romantically to each other. There were driving rave-y beats with many timbral-note accents and synth swells. Very good indeed. Glitchy, slamming beats. Reminiscent of Massive Attack with timbres and chanting vocals - “Let's go! Supernova!” Then more Shambhala-like rave-sounds. It got trancy, with the DJs having fun at their digital percussion pads. It was reminiscent of Bassnectar. Here there were sustained chords and lead-lines, with dissipating drums bringing the crowd home. Beautiful pumping jams as the male vocalist screamed “Make some fucking noise!” The last song was called “Catastrophe” and for it, another female lead-vocalist came out with the DJs and their pulsing, driving, conscious vibes.

The last act came on with ovoid circles onscreen behind them. Carbon Mass, with vocals and synths and heavy bass. There was a tinge of Dido there with them. There was a man on guitar with this band and another on electronics. There were waiting moments of high guitar-lines and a mass of society in the crowd. There was more guitar-plucked-notes matching with the rhythm of the DJ, with a slow-burn purple fire onscreen. There was a faint resemblance to Ministry, with the guitar and vocals and synthesizer keyboard. There was even some bluesy riffing on the guitar. Some mesmerizing grids of white lines on black came onscreen at this point. The guitarist played an SG as downward spiral visuals were onscreen. The last song was a slow-jam with steady beats and smoke and clouds onscreen. 

The whole night was a visualization of where progressive instrumental and electronica music has come to in the past decade. There is a much longer history of this kind of music, dating back to the sixties but it has really become a part of the mainstream over the past number of years. Combining the efforts of instrumental musicians with their live-electronics counterparts is still exciting to many of us and seeing where this genre of music will evolve is a part of being in the audience at this point in time. The four acts were a good showing of where things have been for the past three or four years and as the music-scene picks up again, should impress us with where the music is going now.