Showing up at the Stepp Inn early in the night there looked to be more security personnel than punters. As Simulcast looked to be enjoying himself in the main room with some booming dub-orientated beats that was impossible not to bop your head to,Victor X-Ray was playing to a near empty Corner Bar with darker bass-driven dubstep.
By 11pm the place was still very sparsely populated, so many people missed Dank Morass play a nice augmented bassy set that at one stage incorporated a very dark and big beat reworking of *Thom Yorke*’s solo release Harrowdown Hill. Skipping back and forth between the main room and the corner bar, half an hour before the main man’s album launch was due to hit, Blunt Instrument had filled up the floor somewhat but it still could have done with a lot more souls and it was beginning to look like many Brisbanites had made other plans for their weekend.
Perhaps they had been wracking up their quota of cigarettes in one go outside, or hiding out under the pool tables, but like Zombies towards a shopping mall theSpoonbill fans seemed to come from nowhere and filled up the main room in moments. After a mini epic intro with as many effects and samples as you would expect from this avian maestro, the first track Woodenspoon, from the now-launched album Zoomorphic, had everyone jiving along to the unlikely but perfect blend of cartoonish kazoosynth (yes I just made that up) and slide guitar.
Spoonbill, aka Jim Moynihan’s didactic ear for producing wonderful sounds that warm the heart and move the shoulders is a criminally unrecognised and underappreciated genius that really deserves a bigger stage. Speaking of bigger stages, as finely as the Stepp Inn managed to put on such a fantastic night, Spoonbill really needs to be playing bigger venues in Brisbane. Revelers at his recent Melbourne gig were treated to the full show of visuals, live instruments and even foam props, and there’s no reason, with the right promotion, he couldn’t do the same up here. If the Über Bar couldn’t contain him over a year ago when he had both audio and visuals at his fingertips, then Stepp Inn would definitely struggle to encapsulate just how much fun you can have at a Spoonbill gig.
This, however, certainly didn’t dampen the fun that Spoonbill was evidently having armed with his mac, and so it went on with the endlessly entertaining Wonkball. It is almost impossible to dissect the technical wizardry that goes into such sample-driven songs as these. Besides, you’re too busy having fun to bother trying to figure out if you just heard a game of ping pong being used as part of the rhythm section, or from what 50s cartoons that lip-smack sample is from.
Bunkerfunk (another great name for a song) is another funky little number that was received well by the crowd, combining lyrebird melodies with a heavy bass riff, and (I’m almost positive) a nicely distorted David Byrne vocal. The skill with which such songs go from a dark and intricate brooding piece to a lilting and lazy acoustic rhythm never fails to astound, and is a joy to listen to. At the end of the set the energetic applause was well deserves, and the encore was well appreciated.
If I could describe Spoonbill’s music in one word it would have to be ‘bouncy’. Perhaps it’s the particularly cold and flu medication I’m on but I saw armies of space hoppers bopping and caroming rhythmically into each other on a bouncy castle in flashes of vibrant colours when I first heard the album, which is why it helps to have his signature visual parade during a live set. He combines the fun Mr Scruff has with his music, with the sample skills so prevalent in Coldcut’s work, with the technical superiority in an album like Amon Tobin’s Foley Room, all with a uniquely Australian feel.
Some thought went into the set times as Dank Morass had a thorough hour of bending peoples’ ears before Moynihan was due to start, and Fingerprint was billed to end half an hour after his set, to give the corner bar inhabitant some time to persuade people back to his arena after the CD launch. To their loss, unfortunately after Spoonbill had given up the reigns to Shards, most people piled out of the venue to satisfy their nicotine craving and go home. They missed a tight set by the aforementioned, who dropped some old school arcade classics as well as an appropriate and skilful use of some classic War Games samples, all layered with a healthy smattering of funky beats.
Moving back into the corner bar for the final time afforded some time to listen to the cracking sounds coming from Crooked Sound System. The emerging rare talent who dodge effortlessly between dubstep and drum n’ bass, unsurprisingly leaned towards the former and were personal corner bar highlights. Those who stayed behind to catch them certainly left feeling very thankful that they had lasted this long.
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