AIRCOOLED – MUSIC’S NOT DEAD INSTORE, DE LA WARR PAVILION, BEXHILL-ON-SEA 14.2.24
Aircooled are set to play a couple of gigs at The Prince Albert in Brighton on Saturday (17th February) for the launch of their second album ‘Eat The Gold’ which drops the day before. The 8pm show was announced first and almost immediately sold out and so such was demand that a matinee 2pm additional concert was added. There are at time of going to press a number of tickets available for the afternoon concert, which can be purchased HERE. Support for both concerts will come from Winter Gardens and The Evening Sons.
Aircooled are a supergroup for those that are in the know! The outfit consists of Justin Welch (The Jesus and Mary Chain, Elastica, Piroshka) on drums; Katharine Wallinger (The Wedding Present) on bass; artist and former member of Elastica ‘Mew’ on Korg synth; Oliver Cherer (of Bexhill’s ‘Music’s Not Dead’ record shop) on vocals and guitar; and Riz Maslen on vocals, keyboards and flute.
It’s fair to state that they are purveyors of guitar tainted machine rock! Last year the outfit dropped their debut long player ‘St. Leopard’s which is a play on where they are based St Leonard’s-on-Sea.
My debut encounter with Aircooled came last summer when they appeared on the bill of the excellent ‘Seaview Festival’ which took place on the lawns of the iconic De La Warr Pavilion on 8th July. A follow up encounter came last month at the ‘Lewes Psychedelic Festival’ which took place in the All Saints Centre on 27th January. They were most enjoyable at the ‘Seaview Festival’, but they totally blew me away at the ‘Lewes Psych Fest’ and as a result I had to see them perform live at the earliest opportunity. This being for their special album launch show on Valentine’s Day in the foyer of the De La Warr Pavilion. This is the site of Music’s Not Dead record label, which sits below the iconic spiral staircase, and that’s where four members of Aircooled are performing for us this evening. Not surprisingly the area is really full of eager punters who are able to grab a vinyl copy of the brand new platter two days early! Worth the trip to Bexhill solely for this methinks!
The equipment being utilised for tonight’s performance are drums, drum pads and effects, Reverend Jetstream guitar with eight foot pedals, Squier Jaguar bass, Korg MS2000 keys, another Korg keys, Boss, flute and tambourine. The band take to the stage area beneath the stairs and I note that ‘Mew’ isn’t accompanying the quartet this evening, which is a shame as she has so much bouncy energy. But having said that, things under the stairs are a little cramped anyway.
They kick off their 51 minute set at 7:08pm with ‘Airports’ which is the opening number from ‘Eat The Gold’. Oliver has a tinkle of his keyboard and immediately the sound reminds me of Monsoon’s ‘Ever So Lonely’ classic, before it gets psychie! Song two tonight and on the LP is ‘No Reason To Lie’ which is a rockier number with a twangy guitar delivery and rhythmic drums and was the first track to feature joint vocals from Oliver and Riz. After this Oliver informs us that they are basically going to be playing the whole new album to us, which is a bit of a treat to say the least!
‘Japanese Brute’ is the next selection and I note to myself exactly how decent the acoustics are from where they are playing. I would have thought that the music would waft up the staircase or even bounce off the walls echo style, but thankfully this wasn’t the case. ‘Japanese Brute’ is a slower chugging number, with the joint vocals again. Slow and chugging it might be but this doesn’t stop Oliver being the most animated of the quartet. Justin to the rear on the drums is building up a decent sweat from all his efforts, whereas Riz is mainly stationed to her keys, and as for Katharine on bass, oh my she certainly oozes super cool.
Tune four is the recent single from the album, this being ‘Star Rider’ which dropped on 2nd February. This features the first playing of the flute by Riz and a really decent keys intro. Katharine’s continuous bass riff is to die for, as is the overall vibe which reminds me of Kraftwerk’s ‘Autobahn’ and several tunes from Neu! Instead of next playing ‘Sing Pilgrim, Sing!’ which is next on the LP, we are instead served the closing number, this being ‘Transmission Transmission’. This track benefits from a heavy rock style riff and has a joint vocal delivery again, as well as some notable Joy Division style drumming, although this isn’t their ‘Transmission’.
As the first few notes of ‘Sing Pilgrim, Sing!’ hit my lug holes, I totally understand why they decided to finish with the track. It is wonderfully Krautrock, think early Kraftwerk psyching out and you have it. Katharine’s bass was sounding just like Paul Gardner’s used to be in Tubeway Army’s, as in ‘My Shadow In Vain’, and then she even had a go on the drum pad as well. Riz’ vocals were absolutely superb and it was the outfit’s highlight tonight. There’s even elements of Stereolab in there, it’s like the Talking Heads ‘Psycho Killer’ on steroids! The crowd absolutely totally got it and so the quartet were forced to give us an encore tune. There was only one way for them to end their set and that was with their ‘Supamotodisco’ earworm from their debut album. The keys in this sounded really meaty and it’s their signature tune! At 7:59pm they were done and many folk simply walked the few steps to the record stall and purchased the new album, myself among them. There is only one thing to do now isn’t there? Purchase your tickets for the Saturday 17th February 2pm matinee concert – Grab yours HERE.
Aircooled:
Oliver Cherer – vocals, guitar, synth
Justin Welch – drums, drum pads, effects
Katharine Wallinger – bass, electronic drum
Riz Maslen – vocals, synth, flute
Aircooled setlist:
‘Airports’ (from 2024 ‘Eat The Gold’ album)
‘No Reason To Lie’ (from 2024 ‘Eat The Gold’ album)
‘Japanese Brute’ (from 2024 ‘Eat The Gold’ album)
‘Star Rider’ (from 2024 ‘Eat The Gold’ album)
‘Transmission Transmission’ (from 2024 ‘Eat The Gold’ album)
‘Sing Pilgrim, Sing!’ (from 2024 ‘Eat The Gold’ album)
(encore)
‘Supamotodisco’ (from 2023 ‘St Leopards’ album)
