CLT DRP + VASCHA + COMIC SANS – GREEN DOOR STORE, BRIGHTON 8.9.23
The past five years have proved to be a very fruitful period for a certain Brighton-based electro-punk trio known by the name of CLT DRP. Forming in 2018, CLT DRP (pronounced “clit drip” for those reading in intrigue…) have worked their way up the Brighton live circuit and into the underground big leagues of BBC Radio 6 Music, as well as diving into the vast ocean of UK festivals that include ‘The Great Escape’, ‘ArcTanGent’ and ‘2000 Trees’, just to name a few.
Friday night’s show at the ever-beloved Green Door Store acted as the premier show of the trio’s UK and EU tour, concluding on 29th November at The Lexington in London. With a distinctive blend of seemingly disparate styles of music including pop, electroclash, and all manner of art punk menagerie, the trio just seem to be ascending further and further into steady trajectory, with no slowing down as their opening show celebrates the release of their sophomore album ‘Nothing Clever, Just Feelings’, backed by some lovely and talented individuals…!
The opening act for Friday night was the indie rock four-piece known as Comic Sans. While they have been an active musical unit for a few years, Comic Sans are currently embarking on a journey of reformation and realignment, improving their personal creativity into a new sound and process. Even with this in mind, the four people that make up the band were clearly onto something as they took their place on the stage, with guitarist and founding member Loz yelling: “We are Comic Sans and we are deluded!”.
The quartet open with the song ‘Public Service Announcement’, straight away playing to their strengths as drummer Em pushes forward a jerky drum groove that eventually shifts into a motorik pattern. The song has a playful and glam-like riot grrrl energy to it with lead singer Rachelle’s vocals demonstrating versatility as she switches between sultry and yelpy. The next song, known as ‘Morning Haze’ continues this jamboree of sound with angular guitar patterns that have a Modern Lovers twang to it, as well as the quieter vocal passages evoking immediate comparisons to Fiona Apple and Bjork…! “I hate the talking bit, so I’m just gonna do the singing bit!”, states Rachelle, fittingly preceding the song ‘Talk Show Host’ which sees her ranting over these lop-sided post-punk arrangements. While Em’s drumming is simple, but dynamically effective, it is anchored nicely alongside Loz’s guitar by the low-end framework of bassist Chloe.
From here, we approach the curiously-titled ‘Twilight Interlude’, the heaviest song of the set with its slow groove and sludgy guitar work progressing over its short runtime in a steady fashion. Rachelle concludes this track with “If you like Twilight, you’ll probably recognise the lyrics from that!”. Now, having never watched ‘Twilight’ (and I’d be happy not to), I could not make out the references, but the performance’s energy and personality was still enough to win me over regardless.
The penultimate and high-octane ‘Do I Wanna’ rides along a dance groove with steady momentum as Rachelle commands her lyrics in a sergeant-like fashion towards the crowd. This track also happens to feature the slickest bass lines from Chloe across their entire set! Now, the final song is a curious one; currently unreleased, ‘Winter In Sokcho’ is easily the most progressive and sparse song of the entire set, with a pedalling guitar riff and a 6/8 groove. Speaking to Rachelle after the performance had finished, she’d told me that this is the direction that the band would want to go in for the future… it’ll certainly be something to look forward to if that is to be the case!
Comic Sans:
Rachelle – vocals
Loz – guitar
Chloe – bass
Em – drums
Comic Sans setlist:
‘Public Service Announcement’
‘Morning Haze’
‘Talk Show Host’
‘Twilight Interlude’
‘Do I Wanna?’
‘Winter In Sokcho’ (unreleased)
Moments later, the house lights shift into a dark atmosphere, in contrast to the somewhat comfortable lighting of the Comic Sans set, while low and jittering rumbling disturbs the background music. This is where we begin the experience of VASCHA, who crawls on to the stage and the rumbling filters away into this futuristic, cinematic synthscape.
This opening movement, known as ‘FALL OF THE DAMNED’, mutates and progresses in a beautiful way with VASCHA’s vocals smothered in delaying autotune flowing through the sound. The track’s climax reaches vivacious levels with gut-punching kick drums and an intense hyperpop sound that lays akin to artists like A.G. Cook, Charli XCX and, most suitably of all, SOPHIE.
VASCHA begins to adapt their stage presence into new territory with the club-like ‘ICH BIN DIE BITCH’, complete with deconstructed synth rhythms and a nightcore-painted vocal backdrop. An incredible build-up takes place, the kind you would expect from a hyperpop song; however, this track’s utilisation of sampled vocals (which incidentally give a Trio’s ‘Da Da Da’ vibe in their vernacular inflictions) pulls itself into a completely different world.
‘TERRESTRIAL PARADISE’ sees the return of VASCHA’s vocoded singing, again, with the song’s backdrop prescribing a hyperpop treatment à la Charli XCX. Their on-stage energy really gives the impression like we’re watching them dance alone in their room, adding an intimacy to the show in a way…! The high intensity that the set has built up to this point comes petering down into ‘ghosttown’, introduced by the immediate glistening of shimmering synths. VASCHA presents us with an oddly-gripping melody atop these amazing kick drum patterns that can turn a dance track on its head before the song transitions into the following cut ‘HELL’. The fastest song of the set, ‘HELL’ features extremely erratic synth arpeggios as well as a dramatic usage of harmony before guest artist and performer by the name of il-bambolina (who features on the original track) dances effervescently as the song climaxes.
Following another SOPHIE-like track called ‘angel of peace’ with its soft chiming synth keys, comes the fragile and wonderfully bittersweet ballad ‘five hundred’ (this is a working title). This track is the perfect way for VASCHA to close out as it carries a strong sense of melancholia against the bombasity of the rest of their set. VASCHA’s style of hyperpop was always something I was intrigued by when listening to, but had yet to witness a performance of said style live… I’m happy that VASCHA was my gateway to my live exposure to this sound.
VASCHA setlist:
‘FALL OF THE DAMNED’
‘ICH BIN DIE BITCH’
‘TERRESTRIAL PARADISE’
‘ghosttown’
‘HELL’
‘angel of peace’
‘five hundred’ (working title)
www.instagram.com/vaschavaschavascha
As I’m still hovering around the very front of the stage post-VASCHA’s set, I turn around to see the can of sardines that the Green Door Store has turned into… it is packed! 9:25pm, the lights ever so slowly change colour from green to a white-ish purple as the sound of SOPHIE’s ‘It’s Okay to Cry’ begins to play through the speakers, signalling the walk-on of the holy trio of Annie, Scott and Daphne, aka CLT DRP.
A passage of polyrhythmic drums and guitar open the set with the title track from the band’s album ‘Nothing Clever, Just Feelings’ before it progresses into intense and human sonic manipulations from Scott’s guitar and spectacularly tight drums from Daphne. Meanwhile, vocalist Annie’s immediate presence is awe-inspiring with a chaos-infused energy that brings a slight Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Karen O aura to the proceedings…!
The electroclash sound of the opening song is quickly metamorphosed into an experimental rock edge that a band like Battles could exemplify on ‘Cake 4 The Women’, not to mention Daphne’s body movements looking just as angular as their drum patterns! Speaking of Battles, if they and Crystal Castles were to create the soundtrack for a Mortal Kombat game, you’d end up with the track ‘Desire / 1 on 1’. I have a slight disappreciation for being inside a mosh pit, or feeling the force of said mosh pit, so being at the front of the stage might have been a bad option for me…!
‘I Don’t Wanna Go To The Gym’ features some of Scott’s most mind-blowing guitar tones as they screech with such force over Daphne’s monstrous drum hits! The ferocity of the last few songs gives way to the minimal synth sound of ‘M.U.T.M.’, one of my favourite songs of the set! Scott and Daphne call and respond to each other via electric guitar and synths played on an electronic drum pad, creating a brittle, but dance-worthy song that you could possibly find on an early Depeche Mode release like ‘Speak & Spell’.
We now come to ‘Where The Boys Are’, packed with subliminal guitar tones and a filthy drum groove that carries the song through its opening passages before an intensity kicks in towards a dynamic peak that reminds one of recent no wave champions Model/Actriz. At this point, I am completely in awe of Scott’s guitarwork; I’ve seldom seen anything as ingenious in scope, transgressive in sonics, and overwhelming in sound!
The slightly sinister ‘I See My Body Through You’ employs some of Annie’s strongest vocal performances of the night with some inhuman, yet powerful screaming! As the trio eventually kick off into ‘DAILY AFFIRMATIONS’, they are welcomed by a wave of cheer as this track is clearly a fan favourite… it was certainly one of my favourites of the show! Scott holds back on the experimental guitar sounds in favour of something more clean before he mutates into an oceanic-like aura as the song closes.
Having walked off midway through the previous song, Annie struts onto the stage as ‘The Door’ commences, now in a bodysuit! This track plays around with a tight progression, duelling guitar loops and post-rock swells while Annie delivers their most heartfelt vocal delivery of the entire set!
The final two cuts of the main set, ‘Only One’ and ‘I Put My Baby To Sleep’ are easily some of the most delirious moments the band had to offer, with the former working around these prickly, yet rage-filled guitar riffs, while the latter features disjointed and jerky drum grooves galore against grinding bass drones. As Daphne and Annie leave the stage, Scott is left by himself to tear apart these melting guitar reverberations before he follows suit.
The chanting of the crowd proclaims the band’s return to the stage for one last song: ‘NEW BOY’. Here, Annie’s vocals are mimicked by Scott’s guitar tone while Daphne brings us one final, mechanical drum performance that eventually leads us to a fantastically slow and grinding crescendo to close the set! As soon as the trio left the stage for the last time and the lights went back up, I was left astonished by what I had just witnessed for the last hour; I felt like CLT DRP had pulled me into the depths of hell and brought me out the other side barely intact. Put simply, these guys are a truly monumental force, acting as a strong component of Brighton’s live scene, within which they’re only going up and up from here.
CLT DRP:
Annie Dorrett – vocals
Scott Reynolds – guitar & bass
Daphne Koskeridou – drums
CLT DRP setlist:
‘Nothing Clever, Just Feelings’
‘Cake 4 The Women’
‘Desire / 1 On 1’
‘I Don’t Wanna Go To The Gym’
‘M.U.T.M’
‘Where The Boys Are’
‘I See My Body Through You’
‘DAILY AFFIRMATIONS’
‘The Door’
‘Only One’
‘I Put My Baby To Sleep’
‘NEW BOY’
