A drip, a drop. A buzz, a rumble. Fabric through and through, some might say.
Except that these are sounds perforating from the stage where Simian Mobile Disco are letting their tap of effervescent acid house run freely (it is with the mildest irony they begin this process with a song called Sleep Depravation).
James Ford and Jas Shaw have literally carted in their studio and plonked it on stage. The furniture onstage looks like they've moved in and have yet to unpack. Only the bare essentials are on show - stacks mounted with synths, keys and cabinets of countless input-output channels.
They face opposite each other like chefs hurrying through preparing a delicate course. They dart around and switch places. It's unkempt, unpredictable and in another environment probably wouldn't work. But it's SMD through and through. Their's is an environment fashioned by a hailstorm of light, decadent tunes and writhing bodies.
For Ford and Shaw they're now finally able to bring their closet-like studio existence into the live setting. The timing couldn't be better. A long summer on the festival circuit beckons and their debut album Attack Decay Sustain Release is just around the corner.
Attack Decay knocks peers MSTRKRFT, LCD Soundsystem, Justice's efforts to the wayside by a country mile. Listening to the record makes you want to feel it live.
How it feels.
I Got This Down pops hip hop round a wiry, electro bass line. The jaunty It's The Beat and gratifying Hustler are delivered with devastating clarity. Before you have a moment to swig some replenishment, Tits And Acid's heady rush of techno meets electro house is drilling its way through you.
By the end of the set you wonder how time and your mind were lost so quickly. I take comfort in the fact that there is more to come from SMD. Much more. This is a show you definitely have to feel.
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