Immersion, featuring Malka Spigel (Minimal Compact) and Colin Newman (Wire), told us about their Holy Fuck and AK/DK experiences...
Immersion (combined): Right now, is an amazing time to see fantastic new music, across any genre imaginable, performed in venues which are intimate and don’t cost a fortune to enter. Bands & artists not only make fantastic records but have figured out ways to put these across without resorting to big lineups and fancy productions.
Since we have been living in Brighton, on the UK’s South Coast, and hosting a weekly 2-hour radio show – Swimming In Sound – which is focussed mainly on new music we see a lot of live shows. Pretty much all of them are in venues with a capacity of less than 300 and covering the wide gamut of styles we play on our radio show.
We’ve seen tons of fantastic live shows covering artists as diverse as Ex-Easter Island Head, Holiday Ghosts, Gwenifer Raymond, My Precious Bunny, Club Magic, Bunkr, House Of All, Hania Rani, Cubzoa, SUSS, La Sécurité and many more we would enthusiastically recommend.
However, if we are talking best gig ever then you have to talk about transcendence. About artists that take the energy level somewhere else. Artists who are not only performing their material peerlessly but take it somewhere beyond analysis. We have seen seen two such projects multiple times and are lucky enough to even count their members as friends. Those bands are Holy Fuck & AK/DK. Each of us could choose a performance by either band as the “best gig ever” but we’ll each choose one.
Malka Spigel: We’ve seen Holy Fuck many times and they are always amazing but the most memorable was a gig at Patterns in Brighton. They decided to do the show “in the round” - they played on the floor, and we were on the stage, more or less, on top of them, giving us a unique view of how they work. It was electrifying to see the way the energy works in the band. The pieces build from almost tentative beginnings and then erupt as the whole band kick in. They define what a live band should be about, the energy of their performance & being in the moment.
Colin Newman: AK/DK are also a band we’ve seen a few times and are also always amazing. You always feel lucky to have been in the room when they play a gig so it’s hard to pick one but I’m going to go for their performance at the Dome studio in Brighton this May. It’s the biggest audience we’ve seen them play to. They are just 2 people - live electronics & they both play drums. They are a band that feed off the good energy of the audience but pay it back tenfold! The highlight was a piece they announced afterwards as being literally made up as they performed it. Nonetheless it was both beautiful and fiercely driving by turns.
Immersion's album WTF?? is out September 26.
Courtesy photo.
