Shmoo: Live Review

 

Before I start the review in earnest, I have to say it. Shmoo is a silly name for a band. Everyone I told that I was going to see Shmoo sniggered and made some remark. Not only that but it doesn’t even fit particularly with the style of music. Shmoo is a silly name.

That said, if band describe themselves as a mix between Daft Punk, Air and Orbital and promise an abundant use of vocoders, they have my attention. It’s a shame when that turns out to be a lie.

Still, the Narrows were on first. All dark clothing and long hair, their songs were indiscernible from each other and the set was brief. Their singer looked uncomfortable in every unusual and ungainly position he adopted. His face contorted in a way which I would normally associate with pain and I worried for his voice.

After the set-up of their gear, Shmoo claimed the stage. Just two of them! A duo is always a good sign for an electronic band. Lack of extraneous band members tends to focus their music on the synths and intricate designs and avoid sonic clutter. Immediately I realised just how wrong that assumption was.

The drums overpowered everything. Uninspired live beats trampled all melody into the ground. Over the top of the thumping (and that’s what it was, thumping) came the less than virtuoso vocal performance of their drummer. I would have imagined that this would be how a vocoder could be put to use within Shmoo – hiding the less than pitch-perfect notes of their percussionist. However, the sole owner of the sparsely used vocal effects was their man on the keys.

His poor melodies, interesting and powerful, and manipulated vocals were relegated to the back of the soundscape and thus had little chance to pull any songs out of the mire of thudding, inarticulate drums. I’d like to say that this would be down to the sound mix on the night, but I have an inkling that it’s more to do with the way Shmoo approach arrangements themselves.

One song, ‘She Machine’ was worthy of note, for once highlighting the keys over everything else, but the brief respite was not enough to save a uninspiring set by a band with a silly and incongruous name.