The Perishers are Teenage Fanclub without the perfect harmony. Their childlike melodies are enticing but they linger on the stage just that little too long. Almost like their sunshine pop is our last defence against the darkness that will follow. Eventually they cede the stage to The Low Edges who come on to some spoken word thing that talks about people wasting their time in ghetto scenes and not wanting to get out. Quite insightful as The Low Edges are your typical New Cross scenesters with Luxembourg’s drummer filling in for their regular drummer (who’s absence isn’t explained) and half the people watching them I have spotted from looking at the bands signed to the feted Angular Records. However, The Low Edges are not your typical ‘New Cross’ band. They are like some evil kind of MOR. Childlike four chord songs rotate with Fallesque scratchy sounding rockabilly with even some kind of indie dance song thrown in with barely audible lyrics about being thrown off a cliff and having the “meat torn from your bones”. Very bizarre, but entertaining.

However, the night is all about Gifthorse who are launching ‘The Childhood Gang Reunion’ EP. Gifthorse are another Angular band, but despite having the best song out of both Angular compilations in ‘Happy Daggers’ seemed to have avoided any kind of attention from all the ‘hip’ publications.

There seems to be something slightly wrong about Gifthorse live though. Maybe it is the sound, or maybe their songs are too subtle for a Friday night in Brixton. The fragile sounding vocals get lost in the mix. However, maybe this is the point. Once you get past the bubble of chatter and manage to make out the vocals you can hear some amazing songs, but it is difficult. I think what makes them stand out from the other indie hopefuls are the bass lines and vocal melodies. The Bassist seems to be very northern soul/R&B influenced. The white soul rhythm makes a difference from the root note bass lines most indie bassists offer up. The singer Bryan yelps like he is in ‘Haines and Oates’ some kind of dark indie/R&B vocal styling that I have never really heard before. The lyrics are sinister with their ‘swapping spit in alleyways’ and wailing for help like we have entered some circle of hell.
I hope their EP is good as this would be perfect home listening.

Review by Steven West
www.gifthorse.org.uk
www.thelowedges.co.uk
www.perishersmusic.com

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