Discopolis - photo by Marie HazelwoodClub Lazy Genius

Featuring Discopolis, Fonetiks, Pixels and Get Back Colquitt
The Shipping Forecast
Monday 6th February 2012

Reviewed by Richard Lewis
Photo by Marie Hazelwood

Emerging refreshed for 2012 to pitch up in the cosy confines of the ‘Forecast for one night only before recommencing its season at Bumper, evergreen new bands night Club Lazy Genius again comes up with the goods. Descending into The Hold, Get Back Colquitt up first cram voguish Two Door Cinema Club guitar lines and yelping emotional vocals into concise bursts of indie pop. Early days for sure, but it is reasonable to assume the besuited middle aged gent who pogoes for the entirety of their set may well be joined by fellow revellers before the year is out.

Pixels on next conjour up what the NME used to call ‘new pop’ in the early eighties when the post-punk hordes (ABC, Associates) smartened up sartorially and sonically and began to produce highly polished mechanised pop. An intriguing prospect, their songs played without interruption mark them out as slick live performers even at this early stage.

Fonetiks’ eighteen-month apprenticeship on the city’s gig circuit sees them pull the biggest crowd of the night as they hammer out their set, reshaping it as they go along. Vicious Sirens scream-if-you-wanna-go-faster intro begins proceedings, effortlessly setting out their stall, electronica meets rock done louder. With their florid back projections working beautifully in perfect harness with the dialogue samples, The Hold becomes a miasma of colour, the shadowy figures of the three people on stage twisting and turning the music whichever it suits them.

A whirl of dance/rock/indie and all points that lie in between, as far as genre demarcations go Fonetiks shove the musical boundary handbook through a paper shredder, retrieve it and make it into a fetching piece of origami. As visceral as live music live can get, Sounds Like is splintered into a thousand different pieces and assiduously reassembled as it progresses, a feat topped only by a dazzling new number thrown in towards the end which sees the trio edging towards neo-psychedelia.

Out of towners Discopolis (pictured) surfing in on praise from NME and Pete Tong have a certain weight of expectation riding on them even before their Korg synths are powered up. Opting for classic Kraftwerk style minimalism with just the players and their keyboards lined up onstage, the Glaswegian trio’s undulating electronic motifs and softly sung vocals beguile rather than stun.

Expertly rendered live, the beats crisp, the guitar lines sharp, the synths washing over the ears like a warm wave, after the belligerent determination of Fonetiks, Discopolis’ precision tooled pop doesn’t make quite the same connection. Young enough to look like they would struggle to be served on the premises, Lofty Ambitions serves notice of their nascent song writing talent even if their live show may lag slightly further behind.

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