Manchester Academy 29 January 2008

Imagine a band that plays instrumental music that’s the electronic equivalent of The Dirty Three acoustic genius. Okay, so you don’t know The Dirty Three, well shame on you… Both acts are on the UK’s best indie label, Bella Union, and even the album covers of both bands look very similar. Of course there are differences: Explosions In The Sky offers a more epic sound where guitars play a much more significant role, even dominating, role. The band is as far away from the mainstream as you can imagine, but here’s the shock: they managed to fill Manchester Universities large 1,500 plus capacity Academy venue with little effort. Hell, even I was surprised! But then I ask the question: how can an underground band on a small indie label sell-out a major venue like this? The answer I suspect lies somewhere in the ether and that wonderful thing called ‘referral.’ In other words this is a prime example of the power of the Internet and ‘word-of-mouth.’

But first on the bill is a young solo artist called Eluvium who wandered onto the stage and who I thought was a stage-hand. Almost hidden at the edge of the stage, part-hidden behind an open Apple laptop, this young man proceeded to mesmerise the capacity audience. Using his guitar, keyboards and that laptop Eluvium performed contemporary music that I can best describe as space-age Buddhist chants. Unending rhythms subtly layered by melodic chords with just three songs taking up his thirty-minute stint. The sound was overwhelming, sucking one into a sedate, mystical world. But then one song starting out in the same ethereal manner suddenly exploded catching us all off-guard. This was magical stuff and after his set I went over to his merch stand and was disappointed to find that his albums had been delayed in some airport storage depot. I’ll keep looking…

Last year Explosions In The Sky were forced to cancel its UK tour leaving fans disappointed. So the first job of this four-piece from Texas was to apologise for the disappointment, the next job was to make up for it with a memorable performance. And guess what… Mark SmithChris Hrasky (drums), Munaf Rayani (guitar), and Michael James (bass) delivered up a set that will go down as one of the finest ever given at Manchester’s Academy.

Watching the guys play, only Rayani performs in an animated style, as if his whole body is experiencing the music. ‘Lead man’ Smith at one point in the show got down on his knees to play along with James, but these were rare moments in a set where the music was the star. It’s all too rare to witness instrumental, avant-garde rock here in the UK and to experience the emotive power it can produce; the sudden explosion of sound that punctuates otherwise calm musical passages. Mogwai and Electralane have attempted it but in my view cannot approach the deeply emotional magic of this band and others like Boxhead Ensemble or the aforementioned Australian trio, The Dirty Three.

The band played songs from the latest brilliant album, ALL OF A SUDDEN I MISS EVERYBODY, which by its title gives the game away. This show proved to be aa moving and inspiring experience and one which I will not forget for some time.