AK/DK + THE PINK DIAMOND REVUE + AUTOMOUSE – THE CON CLUB, LEWES 25.5.24
I must confess that I was rather excited to see that local promoters Melting Vinyl had secured the services of Brighton’s double synth and drum duo AK/DK for a performance at The Con Club in Lewes and there was no way I was going to miss this immersive and kaleidoscopic blend of high energy synths and structural drums!
AK/DK are Ed and Gee (also referred to a just ‘G’) and they are purveyors of top notch lo-fi electro-punk. They both play synths and both play the drums – quite often at the same time! Imagine Burundi drums goes electronic and there you have it – fast, exciting, body jerking rhythms to lose yourself in. They multi-task their way through a joyful barrage of distorted drums and rhythms interwoven with simmering electronics – perfect!
The AK/DK sound is rather unique, but if push comes to shove, then you can expect elements similar to the likes of Underworld, Orbital, Moon Duo, Boredoms, Suicide and Sigue Sigue Sputnik. They are a MUST see live band, if you want to comprehend what all the high-energy and largely improvised structural abandon is all about. AK/DK stream of layers of fizzing arpeggios and crushing motorik drums has earned them places on stages and at festivals all around the UK and Europe. The guys create improvised layers of fuzzed-up synths, delays and thunderous double drums. Their album ‘Patterns/Harmonics’ was lauded by BBC 6 Music and received an ‘Album of the Day’ accolade after heavy rotation from the station.
It came as no surprise to me that The Con Club was bursting at the seams with eager punters awaiting their AK/DK fix. There were also a number of noted electronic dignitaries interspersed in the crowd as well, such is AK/DK’s magnetic pull. We ourselves have enjoyed their live sets over the past 6 years and pretty much knew what we were going to get, although not everything, as Gee teased us by informing us that they have been working on an unnamed new album and that they would be trialling some tunes from it. It’s about time as their trio of previous long-players have all appeared at three year intervals, namely ‘Synths + Drums + Noise + Space’ (2014), ‘Patterns/Harmonics’ (2017) and ‘Shared Particles’ (2020). Thus a 2024/5 release (although late) would certainly be most welcome.
This evening there really is a buzz of anticipation in the air as the duo take to the stage at 9:42pm and don’t vacate it until 11:02pm. Thus for an impressive 80 minutes we are given a nine tune set ranging from material from 2011 onwards. As always Gee is stage right (our left) and Ed is stage left (our right). There are two sets of white vertical lighting either side of the stage, along with (mainly) white right to the rear of the stage, and long winding plastic lighting draped across the two drum sets. The house lighting is off and this adds to the atmosphere of the performance. There’s a whole host of electronic equipment available to hand, which sees Ed playing a Roland SH101 synth from the 80’s running through fuzz and delay pedals, and Gee playing an old Casiotone organ, also through fuzz and delay pedals. Ed has an old style hand held taxi style mic and Gee has the normal mic setup. They kick off with the title track of their 2020 ‘Shared Particles’ album and throughout this song and all of the others, they occasionally look at each other whilst performing in order to ensure that they are in synch. Having said that, Ed seems more engrossed throughout the set and at times Gee has to reach across with a drumstick and tap it on the keys in order to get Ed’s attention.
As with all of my previous AK/DK encounters, there’s a great deal of fluidity when they perform and so a song can sound relatively different and fresh on every new live hearing. Improvisation operates throughout an AK/DK set and tonight is no exception with tune four ‘Kosmische (Improv)’, a song one could imagine Ralf and Florian had come up with prior to travelling down the ‘Autobahn’; and tune seven a totally improvised composition. However before both of these we are teased with ‘Munch Machine’ which is an unreleased track that will be turning up on the duo’s forthcoming (unnamed) album. Selection three was the solo cut from 2014’s ‘Synths + Drums + Noise + Space’ album, this being crowd favourite ‘Maxwell’s Waves’, which briefly incorporates the ‘I Feel Love’ (Donna Summer) notes as the metronomic beats run on much longer than the released song and it seems to take on a journey of its own. This song was immense!
Selection five was their oldest of the set, this being the jaunty key classic of ‘Lorem Ipsum’ from 2011’s ‘Dispatch #1’ cassette, which witnessed the duo drumming to perfect harmony. They truly feed off of each other during this and this is wonderful to see and hear. Tune six was an unreleased number which will turn up on their next long-player. This is called (or has the working title of) ‘Wholes’ and this is their samba number. After the previously mentioned improv track, we are thrown into their penultimate selection, in the form of ‘Battersea’ found on 2013’s ‘Dispatch #3’ cassette. This truly is a fan favourite as is their closing number ‘Morphology’ from 2017’s ‘Patterns/Harmonics’ album, which on completion the lads are rewarded with deafening cheers from the elated punters! Quite simply…job done lads!
AK/DK:
Ed – vocals, drums, synths, electronics
Gee – vocals, drums, synths, electronics
AK/DK setlist:
‘Shared Particles’ (from 2020 ‘Shared Particles’ album)
‘Munch Machine’ (unreleased from forthcoming album)
‘Maxwell’s Waves’ (from 2014 ‘Synths + Drums + Noise + Space’ album)
‘Kosmische (Improv)’ (unreleased)
‘Lorem Ipsum’ (from 2011 ‘Dispatch #1’ cassette)
‘Wholes’ (unreleased from forthcoming album)
“Improvised” (unreleased)
‘Battersea’ (from 2013 ‘Dispatch #3’ cassette)
‘Morphology’ (from 2017 ‘Patterns/Harmonics’ album)
Check out AK/DK’s YouTube page HERE and read our previous concert reviews below:
Chalk on 15th October 2021
Patterns on 3rd March 2018
St Paul’s Chapel, Worthing on 11th November 2017
Green Door Store on 24th October 2017
Main support duties this evening came in the form of The Pink Diamond Revue who state that they are a “Live band fronted by Acid Dol a model from another dimension”. The way we see it is an electro-amalgam of 1987-89 ‘Music For The Masses’ era Depeche Mode; the electro-psych vibe of TVAM; ‘Peter Gunn’ flavour Art Of Noise; a snippet of Sigue Sigue Sputnik and lashings and lashings of Sheep On Drugs imagery and sounds that the likes of Marc Almond would adore. The way The Pink Diamond Review sees it “A world where ‘60s film soundtracks meet sampladelic acid house in a baggy-punk rathole somewhere in Interzone”. The way we see it is two guys, namely chisel-edged featured ‘Thin White Duke’, London based guitarist and vocalist going by the name of Tim Lane accompanied by Reading based drummer Rob Courtman Stock and fronted by the top half of a female mannequin doll, that they may or may not be obsessed with!
The Pink Diamond Revue sets are always captivating! Your eyes drift from watching the projected 1960’s images on the broad white sheet draped right across the length of the stage, to watching to see what attire Acid Dol is wearing for each particular tune, to watching what the ‘Thin White Duke’ dresses her in, as well as him throwing a 1000 poses and offering up long distant stares. There are no live vocals as such, just pre-recorded snippets from a bygone era that sit atop the live twangy guitar and metronome drum patterns. There’s no-one out there like The Pink Diamond Revue and that is what makes them so special. They are merrily ploughing their own way in the cutthroat music business, but along the way picking up more (bemused) fans with each new performance.
It appears that Acid Dol is quite possibly sporting a new gold sequined dress for this evening, but the usual selection of hats and glasses are added throughout the 10 tune performance. A performance I hasten to add that went down terrifically well. Some tune intros appeared longer than I had remembered and added to the build and anticipation of what was set to come, none more so than on the opening number ‘Microdot’. Each composition was delivered with gusto from Tim as his twangy psych guitars both went into action during different tunes in the set and before it seemed I could blink, we had arrived at their final number ‘Elvis Presley’ which not only namechecks ‘The King’ but also “Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, Little Richard” and the backing film includes snippets of Nancy Sinatra and is delivered with a DAF style electronic backbeat. All TPDR tunes have electronic backing of sorts! After this, the crowd applauded with so much enthusiasm and demanded one more tune, that Tim and Rob were really given no option and thus gave us the added new unreleased ‘She Is Yeah’ number, which starts like ‘Messages’ by OMD on the backing and then gritty punk guitar kicks in. This was pretty impressive stuff for a support act to be given the opportunity of playing “one more song”.
The Pink Diamond Revue:
Tim Lane – the fuzz guitar
Rob Courtman Stock – drums
ACiD DoL – fashion
The Pink Diamond Revue setlist:
‘Microdot’
‘New Kind Of Life’
‘Lux’
‘Lose Your Head’
‘The Fuzz Guitar’
‘Milkshake’
‘Nothing Can Go Wrong’
‘At The Discotheque’
‘Elvis Presley’
(encore)
‘She Is Yeah’
The evening was kicked off by the mysterious Automouse who quite possibly in another life might be known as Kate Reed. They state they operate “All hardware heavy brain massage. Queer beats to squeeze you until you burst”. I first came across Automouse when they were DJing at the Panda Bear & Sonic Boom concert at Komedia Brighton on 26th April last year. (Review HERE). However this time around it was a full live solo instrumental noise set made by using circuits and knobs. Think of something akin to a pounding version of early Cabaret Voltaire and you’re half-way there. The music was delivered as a continuous live mix and Automouse wore headgear that was the size of a compact TV and broadcast visual images of an eye projected on the front. Let’s just say that this was an acquired taste!
Great Gig
So much energy with a great bunch of musicians
Our daughter Alisha always enjoys Tim’s Set and she loved the drum beat
Thanks for your comment Willie.