ACID KLAUS + CURRENTMOODGIRL – THE HOPE & RUIN, BRIGHTON 28.9.24
I must confess that The Moonlandingz was just a name I was aware of, unlike Eccentronic Research Council, which had totally gone under my radar, however Acid Klaus is absolutely centre-target for me. The connection of all three being the creature that is Adrian Flanagan. One that can easily be summed up by simply adjusting a few words of The Shamen’s legendary No.1 hit single ‘Ebeneezer Goode’:
“There’s a guy in the place who’s got a bittersweet face;
And he goes by the name of Acid Klaus;
His friends call him ‘Ezer as he’s the main geezer;
He vibes up the place with his sounds of rave house;
He’s refined, he’s sublime, and he makes you feel fine;
Though very much maligned and misunderstood;
But if you know ‘Ezer he’s a real crowd pleaser;
He’s ever so good – he’s very, very good”.
A night out in town enjoying the sounds of Acid Klaus is a must for fans of dance music and so we find ourselves back at The Hope & Ruin, courtesy of Melting Vinyl promoters, for another slice of Klaus action! Acid Klaus were previously played live at The Hope & Ruin as part of the ‘Mutations’ Festival on 4th November 2023 and that was for me the best performance of the festival. They were also the best at ‘Lewes Psych Fest’ at the beginning of the year too and were great at ‘The Great Escape’ as well. I can recall talking with Adrian at the ‘Lewes Psych Fest’ and trying to persuade him to play live in Brighton, but back then they were only looking at playing festival slots. However with the release of the brand new ‘PTSD By Proxy’ EP, the time has come to play some headline gigs and so we find ourselves in an almost sold out first floor concert room in Queens Road in the company of Adrian and his chums! Adrian takes care of the whitty Northern banter, vocals, vocoder, synth, dub box, and sequencer duties and accompanying him are Oliver Harrap on drums, samples, and electronic percussion, along with a trio of singers, who are Amelia Lace aka Baby Woman, Catrin Robinson and Rosey Pm. The quintet stand in a straight line a’ la Kraftwerk.
We are in their company for 67 minutes, from 9:31pm to 10:38pm, and we are rewarded a dozen cuts during that time. The feel-good-factor commenced with ‘Party Sized Away Day’, the first of a handful of tunes that are found on their 2022 ‘Step On My Travelator: The Imagined Career Trajectory of Superstar DJ & Dance Pop Producer, Melvin Harris’ album. Our Saturday night dancing had begun! Vocal duties on the track are shared by the whole team bar drummer Oliver. They now offer up the lead single from the 5-track ‘’PTSD By Proxy’ EP, this being ‘Aerodromes’ which is a decent Giorgio Moroder dance number. Adrian has two mics on the go for this, one normal and one vocoder and lead vocals are taken care of by Amelia. Catrin cames to the fore on lead vocals for their Welsh language track ‘Bethlehem Or Bust’, which Adrian informs us is about people who take over other countries. Ironically we merrily danced to it as we had done decades ago for OMD’s ‘Enola Gay’.
Catrin remained on lead vocals for the unreleased ‘Physical Jesus’ as Adrain in his trademark, hat, glasses and mac, took care of the electronics. The second of four choices from the new ‘PTSD By Proxy’ EP came next in the form of ‘Losing Our Way’, which signalled that it was the turn of Rosey Pm on lead vocals. ‘Elevate’ from their 2022 album came next and Amelia took the lead and was introduced by Adrian as “Baby Woman”. There’s some rather decent vocoder action going on here for this electro retro corker!
After this, Adrian jokingly stated that they were going to play “something less boring boomer” and he came away from his station (stage left/our right) and wandered into the crowd and delivered ‘Bad Club Bad Drugs Bad People’, after which he said “thanks, nice to meet you” to the crowd. On stage, meanwhile, Catrin was also on vocal duties. Some Tuaca shots were delivered in a crate onto the stage by a member of the audience and they went down very well indeed with the five musicians. It was obvious that at least one of the girls hadn’t tried it before, but that they liked it.
The top quality tunes kept on coming, with the arrival of ‘You’re A Freak’ which this time featured a retro Black Box ‘Ride On Time’ style beat and lead vocals by Rosey. The atmosphere in the room was joyous as the band kicked on with a couple of newbies found on the new EP, ‘The Solution (Is Revolution)’ and ‘Pour Some Wood On The Fire’. The first has a fabulous deep bass synth sound and Ardian was off into the crowd again as he delivered the vocals. For ‘Pour Some Wood On The Fire’ it was the turn of Catrin on lead vocals for this electro beat tune, which benefits from 80’s sounding keys atop like on New Order’s ‘Confusion’ under the hands of Arthur Baker. The punters were well into this one, as was I, and I’d have to report that this was indeed for me the prize cut of the set! The beat kept rolling as they segued into ‘The Three Rooms Of Nightclub Marilyn’, which had the trio of girls on vocals as well as Adrian, who then called out tonight’s support artist to grab his microphone and sing along, she eagerly complied.
They closed the set with ‘Heavens For Sale (Put Your Money In My Box)’ which I think is unreleased and we are informed that this track is about “false prophets and it’s f*cking sexy too”. The bangin’ beat rolled on to the end of the set at 10:38pm and it had been yet another successful set from Acid Klaus and the best way to celebrate was a free second round of Tuaca’s for the band…Cheers!
Acid Klaus:
Adrian Flanagan – vocals, vocoder, synth, dub box, sequencer
Amelia Lace aka Baby Woman – vocals
Catrin Robinson – vocals
Rosey Pm – vocals, marimba shaker
Oliver Harrap – drums, samples, electronic percussion
Acid Klaus setlist:
‘Party Sized Away Day’ (from 2022 ‘Step On My Travelator: The Imagined Career Trajectory of Superstar DJ & Dance Pop Producer, Melvin Harris’ album)
‘Aerodromes’ (from 2024 ‘PTSD By Proxy’ EP)
‘Bethlehem Or Bust’ (from 2022 ‘Step On My Travelator: The Imagined Career Trajectory of Superstar DJ & Dance Pop Producer, Melvin Harris’ album)
‘Physical Jesus’ (unreleased)
‘Losing Our Way’ (from 2024 ‘PTSD By Proxy’ EP)
‘Elevate’ (from 2022 ‘Step On My Travelator: The Imagined Career Trajectory of Superstar DJ & Dance Pop Producer, Melvin Harris’ album)
‘Bad Club Bad Drugs Bad People’ (from 2022 ‘Step On My Travelator: The Imagined Career Trajectory of Superstar DJ & Dance Pop Producer, Melvin Harris’ album)
‘You’re A Freak’ (from 2023 ‘You’re A Freak’ EP)
‘The Solution (Is Revolution)’ (from 2024 ‘PTSD By Proxy’ EP)
‘Pour Some Wood On The Fire’ (from 2024 ‘PTSD By Proxy’ EP)
‘The Three Rooms Of Nightclub Marilyn’ (from 2022 ‘Step On My Travelator: The Imagined Career Trajectory of Superstar DJ & Dance Pop Producer, Melvin Harris’ album)
‘Heavens For Sale (Put Your Money In My Box)’
Support this evening came from Brighton based (via Manchester) artist Greta Carroll who goes by the stage name of CurrentMoodGirl (stylized as ‘CURRENTMOODGIRI’) who is certainly a welcome addition to our city, judging by her performance this evening! Greta has been exploring the sounds of dark experimental pop for at least 4 years. In 2020 she dropped a couple of singles, these being ‘Love Like Lazers’ and ‘The Letter L’. ‘Sleepless 111’ arrived ahead of the 4-tune ‘Side Split’ EP in 2021. Her first post-Covid release has just dropped, this being her brand new single ‘Frogspawn’ which came out on 25th September.
As Greta takes to the stage, The Hope & Ruin’s swings open and the one and only Stephen Mallinder of Cabaret Voltaire fame makes an entrance. He was always one for pushing the boundaries of what arguably is and is not music back in the day, depending whether you were the purchaser of ‘Nag Nag Nag’ and ‘Silent Command’ singles or the parents having to listen to them! Greta is arguably doing the same today during her 9-tune set. The music is supplied by her backing tracks via Ableton (on the laptop) and from the outset it’s merely Greta, her handbag on her arm, a tin of Budweiser briefly held in one hand and the microphone.
The performance starts, and it IS a “performance” as Greta’s musical persona definitely requires the audience’s attention as we initially experience the strange noises of opening number ‘Hollywoodhightway’ which reminded me of Gazelle Twin. The handbag is laid to rest on the floor and before we know it, we are into selection two which is her 2020 ‘The Letter L’ single which we are informed is “about having dyslexia”. It has the repeated line “lucky lie, lusty love, lullaby” remaining constant throughout the composition. There are choreographed dance and ballet moves to accompany this and the remaining songs of the set. Greta is all in white like a modern take on a ballet costume but with added pole dancers edginess. Her physique is not agonisingly thin like many ballet dancers, but she doesn’t need to be. My partner Jordan Mooney (RIP) was of a similar build and is famed for her ballet sequence in Derek Jarman’s ‘Jubilee’ film – Watch that HERE.
Selection three is ‘Frogspawn’ which Greta informs us “came out 2 days ago”. It’s here that I note the similarities to fellow solo artist BABii, who is also ploughing her own furrow, as have Kate Bush, Björk (a poster of which is looking on from the venue side wall) and Grimes been doing over the past decades. After ‘Hot shiver’ we are rewarded with ‘Sleepless 111’ from her 2021 ‘Side Split’ EP. Greta’s accompanying ballet/dance moves are at times rather erotic and this seems to keep the audience transfixed. Just in case they weren’t paying attention a wander into the crowd spikes further interest. Greta’s white shoes have now long been discarded, but as I’m tapping up my notes on my mobile whilst standing at the front of the audience, I thankfully look up at just the right moment as I had an inkling that one of these shoes, which by now was in her hand, might just be heading my way! I wasn’t ignoring the show, I was recording it for posterity for you! At least a couple of times after the tracks had finished we had a “f*ck you” in her strong Manchester accent instead of a “thank you”, which further confirmed to my mind that I might just have got away with one! Damage averted, we move on….
The four remaining songs were ‘Dolly dagger’, ‘Feelin it’, ‘TELLPHONEVISHION’ and ‘My Own’ which is found on the 2021 ‘Side Split’ EP and at 9:04pm the performance had concluded, but I was intrigued and wanted to know more about this interesting person! Hopefully there will be more local performances in the near future!
CURRENTMOODGIRL:
Greta Carroll – vocals
CURRENTMOODGIRL setlist:
‘Hollywoodhightway’
‘The Letter L’ (a 2020 single)
‘Frogspawn’ (a 2024 single)
‘Hot shiver’
‘Sleepless 111’ (from 2021 ‘Side Split’ EP)
‘Dolly dagger’
‘Feelin it’
‘TELLPHONEVISHION’
‘My Own’ (from 2021 ‘Side Split’ EP)
