ArtsIn Productions Ltd. put on this show at Leicester's famous
Firebug music venue to celebrate two bands that we wished to highlight and
one talented young singer.
Leo Stannard first came to our attention
when he performed at the OBS Unplugged show in January this year. He also impressed
members of Raptusound. The band members had met Leo when they were playing together
on the same bill at Bar Solo in Camden, London. He impressed them so much that
they asked him to open tonight's show.
What impressed us tonight was the range of techniques he
employed on this guitar. To the careful picking of the strings he added some
extraordinary percussive sounds, achieved by tapping or hitting the body of the
instrument. His strong, clear voice was used to good effect to deliver his set
of contemporary style songs.
His performance had plenty of vibrancy and panache and his
songs were dressed with no shortage of mood and atmosphere. Delicate phrasing
was combined with robust passages to produce half an hour of completely enjoyable
acoustic music.
A fine young singer with a lot of song writing talent. With
his captivating musicality and distinctive vocal styling, Leo enchanted the audience
throughout his set.
Coming to Leicester from Leipzig, Din
Martin were here in
the city for a second time, having played once in March 2011. The sharp and vibrant
sounds of this quartet made a considerable impact on the crowd.
Ole Toense (Guitar), Martin Zickenrott (Drums), Carsten Ritter (Bass),
Martin Jörg Hommel (Gituar, Vocals) played a set of music that was remarkable
in its musical inventiveness and completely absorbing sound.
Their songs were cleverly orchestrated with a range of percussive
decorations, intricately woven guitar lines and soaring electro backings. The
vocals, in English, rustled across the tunes like a breeze on a summer's afternoon.
The mixing of the instrumental and electronic layers was
sophisticated and between the vocal parts there were long instrumental passages
in which the band demonstrated their considerable abilities as fine musicians.
Their work was symphonic, taking the idiom to a high level of creative elegance.
Complex rhythms entwining mesmeric audio tracks into long waves of musical colours
and textures. The instruments were woven into the electo layers with considerable
deftness. They evoked ethereal dreamlike landscapes, full of waves of delicious
imagery and subtly poetic colours.
Their songs were markedly longer than most that we are used
to, taking their time to build up the dynamics of a composition, reaching stunning
crescendos that had razor-sharp endings. I kept thinking of impressionists painters;
in my head they were the musical equivalent of Claude Monet.
Occupying a musical style somewhere between U2 and Radiohead,
with strong recollections of Iceland's Sigur Rós, the German band was
enthusiastically applauded at the conclusion of their set. It was a completely
enchanting musical experience.
See our review of Din Martin's The Second
Before You Faint.
We discovered Leicester band Raptusound at
the 2011 Oxjam Festival and made them our Band of the Month in February 2012.
Tonight we were delighted that they were playing at our show, having seen them
a couple of times since then. They played at the OBS on March 10th, delivering
a stunning performance which brought them through to the semi-finals of the showcase
series organised by VJT Promotions.
Raptusound's brand of pulsating and powerful electro/alternative
rock saw them delivering a set tonight that was both exhilarating and decidedly
ear-pleasing. They have an unusual knack of moulding together rugged strings,
driving bass lines and feverish percussion to back the persuasive vocals of lead
singer Chris Brown.
As a band they have not been playing together that long but
they are rapidly rising to being one of the more celebrated of our local groups.
Rooted in the influences of Nirvana, Muse, Radiohead and many other notable icons
of rock music, their music delivers a thrilling experience.
The way they weave the strings, drums and bass together is
impressive; the vocal line is vibrant and the result is a set of songs that
is musically compelling.
You can see Raptusound when they play the semi-finals of
the OBS at The Musician on Friday 4th May. Join this event on Facebook.
It was a well attended evening, which on a Tuesday night
was surprising and the audience clearly enjoyed all of the line-up. You could
tell from their response to each of the three acts that it had been a night of
top quality music.
