AK/DK + FRUITY WATER – PATTERNS, BRIGHTON 3.3.18
This evening was my third time in witnessing local Brighton based duo AK/DK performing live within six months.
It has taken me up until now to realise exactly why the music created and performed by Ed and Gee who make up AK/DK is so special to me. These boys have tapped into my primordial yearnings in a way that resembles a shaman hypnotising his loyal followers. Or to put it another way of more recent times, the effects of acid house. Where one totally immerses oneself within the music as if to float off into another world, where your fellow revellers are in the same state of mind as yourself, just like Whirling Dervishes from Konya (in modern day Turkey) have been doing for centuries.
How did I get to this conclusion? Well, tonight I was right at the front of the gig leaning against the metal barrier and I could see along the front of the crowd and like myself there were several other individuals immersed within a state of trance, whereby they were moving around on the spot with the eyes closed and head and bodies moving in time to the sounds of AK/DK. The band had reached out to them through their music and whisked them away from cold Brighton to a higher plain.
Now of course I can’t say for certain what circumstances had led these people to have reached to this state, whether alcohol or other substances were involved, but I strongly believe that it was neither, simply just the rhythmic synths and drums.
I can totally relate to this as when I purchased Kraftwerk’s 12” luminous vinyl record of ‘Neon Lights’ back in the late 1970’s, I would draw shut all of the curtains in the lounge and switch off the lights and put the record onto my old walnut Bush record player and turn the volume up really high and lay down in between the in-built speakers as to enhance the stereo effect. I would close my eyes and the swirling synth sounds would make my eyes water as they rapidly shifted from one speaker to the other. When I did open up my eyes at the end of the tune, I could see the one single ‘on’ red light emanating from the music system. I would get up and put the record on again and again!
This is the effect that AK/DK’s music has on people! A classic example being that my mate that I attended the gig with, only does punk gigs, but here he is bobbing his head from side-to-side with his eyes shut. He has become another individual under Ed and Gee’s hypnotic spell.
Some of you may think that I might have been taking something, prior to writing this article, which is NOT the case, however, it would be very likely that you yourself haven’t experience the joys of a live kaleidoscopic blend of high energy synths and structural drums gained from an AK/DK performance.
Tonight, the lads multitasked their way through their 70 minute nine song set of loose interpretations of their self-penned material from their 2017 album ‘Patterns/Harmonics’ as well as some older material and three on-the-night improvisations.
We were immersed in a harmonious blend of Underworld and Orbital style rave/disco beats, Burundi style drumming and cyberpunk shouty vocals. These chaps should really be looking to compose music for films – dark films – sci-fi films – horror films. They have the passion and they enjoy what they are doing and the crowd tonight follow along like sheep to a metaphoric slaughter.
Tonight’s AK/DK nine track setlist reads (note the links to hear some of the tracks): ‘Drone intro in A’, ‘Improv #1 in A 91 bpm’, ‘Maxwell’s Waves’, ‘Lorem Ipsum’, ‘Improv #2 in C 90 bpm’, ‘Improv #3 in A 130bpm’, ‘Lagom’, ‘Battersea’ (encore) ‘Morphology’
For more info on AK/DK visit: http://www.akdk.co.uk/ and: https://www.facebook.com/akdkband/
A shout should also go out to this evening’s support duo of Adam and Smalan aka Fruity Water, who are also based in Brighton and gave a good account of themselves, the crowd appreciated what they were trying to achieve.
Fruity Water offered up their own dreamy electro-popper blend of music that is in the main quite relaxing, except for their rave track, which was a surprise to me, but was well received.
Fruity Water’s debut single ‘Wasted Summer’ was filmed in Brighton and the accompanying video can be enjoyed here by fruit bap lovers everywhere. Fruity Water’s second single ‘Rules’ was released on 23rd February, see the video here.
It’s taken from their forthcoming 12 tune debut album ‘Thirst Takes’ due out 30th March 2018. They have organised a free entry album launch party at The Black Dove, 74 St James’s Street, Brighton BN2 1PA from 8pm. Find out more here: https://fruitywater.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/fruitywaterband/
The setlist from tonight was: ‘Join the Dots’, ‘Wasted Summer’, ‘Dance with Me’, ‘Rules’, ‘No Happy Endings’.
If you enjoy synth music like the AK/DK, then the chances are that you will also enjoy the bands listed below. Simply click on each of the names and they will take you to our concert reviews on those bands:
Fröst, The Human League, Blancmange, The KVB, Digitalis, Battery Operated Orchestra, Halo Maud, Sextile, Gary Numan, Orbital, Pinkshinyultrablast, B-Movie, Covenant, Blue Hawaii, OMD, The Fin., Heaven 17, Austra, Vile Electrodes.
