Spirit of Gravity, Marlborough Theatre, Brighton, Tuesday 19th September

For reasons of pure whimsy I'm running the review in reverse order this month.

Leo Abrahams
Top of the bill for September was Leo Abrahams (www.leoabrahams.com/), a collaborator with Brian Eno and David Holmes - rather than Brian Eno playing with Leo Abrahams (a David Holmes collaborator) as the Evening Argus implied, apologies to the people from Hurstpierpoint (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurstpierpoint) who travelled down.
Leo sits with his rather beautiful hollow bodied Telecaster and array of pedals and switches creating instrumental songs out of layers of loops. Yes, songs, a rather nice change from lengthy soundscapes. The songs are either loud and dynamic or rather beautiful and melancholy. Pulling songs from both of his CD's, "Honeytrap" and the recent "Scene Memory" on BipHop (www.bip-hop.com/) Leo was quietly fabulous, and managed to raise whistling from the normally reserved SoG audience. He ended the evening with a pairing of the pounding Arabic tinted "Siren" (the only song that used prepared backing tracks) and finally floated us home with a short and beautiful hymn.

Fupper
Preceding Leo with a nominally set-up was Fupper (www.fupper.co.uk/). Once again song based guitar (Telecaster yet!) sourced loops, but with vocals and touches of harmonica, Fupper was actually a very different kettle of lo-fi fish. Engaging songs with a full spectrum distortion on the guitar. The loops are dense and build into a much more textured beast. The vocals are quiet, and again almost textural in their contribution. Well worth checking out again at the Albert. I was won over enough to buy a copy of his single "Show me your hands" and shame on anyone foolish enough not to snap up a copy 'cos its bloody marvellous (www.jonsonfamily.com/records/recordInformation.aspx?rid=jfr023). As Colin put him on at the Albert later that week, I suspect Edgeworld will have copies, I suggest you run.

This Sound Bureaucracy
Malevich starting again from I'm Dr Bouyant. Tony Rimbaud (www.myspace.com/tonyrimbaud) was looping it up from murky soundsources while Rilke gave us pointers to a better musical experience. After his introduction he handed the microphone over to a series of guests. First up was Dan Powell who read some of the other Rilke. Howard from Sold/Celled vented his spleen on management techniques again (he must have suffered terribly at the hands of a manager as a child - Howard, I suggest therapy) before starting a hilarious turn on what he likes to look at when he goes to art galleries. Lee gave us a poem he co-wrote with Britney Spears about Emperor Penguins, and I finished off picking up on Tony's (And Howard's) sense of repetition. Howard's Art Gallery piece is up on the Sogblog along with "Lea" by Fupper and "Anemone" from Leo Abrahams, all recorded live at the Spirit of Gravity and this month with supporting information (spiritofgravity-brighton.blogspot.com/)