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"piphany tapes:"

I record and remaster live concerts by artists that I love across the UK!

21/01/2024

Gilla/Ingen/Chainsaw/Yes

Gilla Band ()
Man/Woman/Chainsaw ()
YES, Manchester
5 December 2023

Download my audio tape here: https://piphanytapes.live/

There are venues with louder soundsystems than that of the incredible YES Pink Room, and there are certainly smaller rooms, and yet sonically, no other space that I’ve visited can quite capture the ecstatic force that one experiences in the sweet spot a few rows from the front there. And few bands can cause one to seek this force in a way that Gilla Band can.

The night was opened by London’s beautiful Man/Woman/Chainsaw, with whose music I fell in love for the first time: I defy you, listener, to witness a song like Back/Burden in the flesh without dissolving into an electric agar jive! [correction: I do not defy you—please see this band if you can.] Every single member exudes a sense of glee and immediacy in both their melodies and their energies, leaving a concert that even through tender and slow moments it’s hard to lose the biggest grin.

As for the headliners... There’s a switch in my brain so rarely touched, but it is tripped by the moment in Shoulderblades where the most absolutely horrible bassline without a single identifiable note kicks in from the wizard on the left Daniel Fox. I don’t know what happens when it kicks in, but I come to about five minutes later exhausted, faint, and battered. I was surprised, then, when it was prematurely triggered by Mr. Fox’s Oscillator that accompanies Post Ryan’s “same old” verse: while I completely lost myself for a few minutes at the time, looking back it’s clear that a brain needs a mechanism to cope with being flanked by such brutality to the left, the searing lance of Alan Duggan’s guitar to the right, and from the middle the skewed subpincer of Adam Faulkner and Dara Kiely rhythmically and verbally commanding the writhing crowd.

I was overwhelmed and depleted entirely by Gilla Band. I don’t like crowds at the best of times. I struggled to stand, sometimes even to breathe, and I was utterly battered. It was very much a “never again” kind of night—I cannot wait to go through it all over again.

Have the loveliest of days,
—e

15/01/2024

20 years of being a rock group

LCD Soundsystem ()
Brixton Academy, London
3 July 2022
2h3m

Download my audio tape here: https://piphanytapes.live/

LCD Soundsystem truly do possess quite a magical power. This was the closing night of a seemingly consistently brilliant residency at the Brixton Academy celebrating the band's twentieth birthday, and my first time seeing them. The residency saw greatly dynamic setlists, with few songs safely in each show, and some real rare treats excavated at times. This final show of the residency had such an amazing set of music: with the exception of a couple of absent favourites of mine, I could have sat down to write down my fantasy dream LCD Soundsystem setlist and feasibly have come up with something very close to what was played. "Get Innocuous!" provided a perfect introduction; songs like "I Can Change" and "Losing My Edge" threw us cheeky little details that made the whole crowd grin; fan-faves like "Daft Punk..." and "Someone Great" provided the beautiful sound of so many thousands singing along with glee; and it was impossible not to become quite emotional during the cathartic closing performance of "All My Friends". Everybody in this world deserves to stand in a room with thousands of others and simultaneously yell "Gil! Scott! Heron!"!!

The only thing that I regret is that an audio recording cannot convey the impressive light shows. The sudden reveal of the band's trademark disco ball in a nicely timed great array of light towards the end of "Get Innocuous!" promised an exciting show, and the increasingly creative use of the display behind the band on stage very much complimented the music. I couldn't see a thing for a minute or so after the blinding conclusion of "You Wanted a Hit"!

Oh, and do stick around for the post-performance audience outro. Their spontaneous Sinéad O'Connor performance makes me smile every time that I hear this tape :)

I must also send my sincere thanks to the wonderful .ives, who provided brilliant additional mastering and cover art.

Thank you so much for reading and listening, and I truly hope that you enjoy.

Have the loveliest of days,
—e

15/01/2024

Brudenellfire

black midi ()
Brudenell Social Club, Leeds ()
26 November 2022
1h22m

Download my audio tape here: https://piphanytapes.live/

I've long personally held the theory that the wonderful black midi's cancelled "Open Session" with the scheduled Hellfire launch concert, two entirely different special sets, was originally intended to be recorded for what eventually became the live album Live Fire. With the launch event being postponed twice and Live Fire being released as an almost raw desk feed of a 2022 festival date, then, this feels like even more of a shame, as the event as it was eventually played was something that I still consider to be one of the band's most excellent performances.

While they seemed to forget about the planned complementary sets, this didn't even matter for those of us in the room as song after song we received performances to stand well above almost all others. From one of the only performances (and, to date, the last ever instance) of the additional introduction of The Defence, to the gorgeous and unique extended opening to Sugar/Tzu; from the gleeful perfection of Dangerous Liaisons executed to the oh-so-special build and Seth-shone climax of Slow; from some of the most playful and cheeky band interplay of John L to the almost stationary sloth of the 953 that took up a full 20% of its concert, each here mentioned song is, I believe, one of the best respective performances that I've heard to date. You can't miss this!

For this tape, I've combined the two sets by either curating or splicing performances to get the best from each song, resequencing to achieve a cohesive way to listen to the night without redundancy or abruptness. It's by no means a perfect recording—my best efforts could not save the first half of 953 from being a somewhat challenging listen, perhaps!—but I think that it sounds good enough to make what, for me, feels like a perfect way to celebrate this true culmination of Hellfire's extensive touring cycle.

Thank you so much for reading and listening, and I truly hope that you enjoy.

Have the loveliest of days,
—e

15/01/2024

For years, recording concerts and prettying them up for myself and my friends has been a really close hobby for me. Reliving beautiful concert experiences is so great, never mind the preservation of unique and special performances on any given night! I recently realised that when I spend such a proportion of my free time working on these tapes, it almost feels a shame to only give them to involved artists and interested friends, otherwise keeping them for personal use...

piphany tapes: is hence my project to put all of my concert recordings (as well as some of those by other wonderful tapers that I've remastered and given a little bow) out there for anybody to enjoy.

I hope that some of what I post can make you happy! :)

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