Appliance’s quiet riot ploy

It all starts so naturally, almost imperceptibly: while the audience is parading drinks from the side-room bar, James Brooks is tuning his guitars, David Ireland is behind checking a drum machine, repositioning his battery miking… Then, one click of a laptop’s key and it grows into this glorious tune. Michael Parker strolls on and straps his four-stringer. Appliance’s music suddenly seems to transpire within one’s earshot…

The unusual beginning sets the tone for this experimental evening with a set of songs and instrumentals of certain twistage, intriguing re-alignment of elements, curving dramatic notes to sculpt substantial soundscape. Tracks from the new album, ‘Are You Earthed?’, are inserted with a choice of tunes from the previous three platters, ‘Manual’, ‘Six Modular Pieces’ and ‘Imperial Metric’.

Appliance trio are focused on creating an atmospheric soundtrack that sonically flirts with many a genre, from pop to cyber, from rock to industrial, from psychedelic to post-whatever, an electro-organic mosaic to reflect the freaked-out times. There are moments when they recall so many British musical explorers, be it early Roxy Music, Wire, King Crimson, Pink Floyd, Cabaret Voltaire… The list can go on but this isn’t simply a collection of influences, it far supersedes the sum of its bits.

All delivered with minimum of rapport – songs are introduced but that’s the extent of it – indicating that rare oddity whereas a low-profile is detrimental to the event. The whole show is pretty statically delivered, it has an air of understated ambience, suggesting that they could benefit from a transplant of charisma. It may further be argued that this classy music is fairly handicapped by the shortage of any visual activity.

It is like a group portrait with a still life… Otherwise, Appliance produce great music that can take its (selected) audience far from this annex to the usual gigging venue at the Highbury-Islington border’s backstreet. Its range is vast but mainly quiet, polite, almost discreet whilst today’s climate appears hell-bent on more concrete brain-quakes.

And, the members take the whole thing too straight-faced with bassist solely smiling once when someone yodelled in delight. There is obviusly a distinct lack of laughing matter in the world presently but we escape to the gigs to forget all the bleeding ills!

Still, Appliance are not avant for the art’s sake alone, there is fluidity that is spoken in many splendour’d tongues.