Astral Pattern
The Macbeth, London | 22 April
The first time Crack spoke to Astral Pattern was at their very inception. They’d marked it by going on a collective pilgrimage to Kraftwerk’s hometown of Düsseldorf to see their kraut-rock forefathers perform live, and in a glitched evening of robots and computers, the three-piece was born.
14 months down the line, and following the release of their ethereal debut EP Light Poems, the band find themselves on more familiar soil with a visitor who has made the reverse journey. Tonight they perform as the backing band to Can’s legendary former frontman Damo Suzuki, in an enviable union of kraut messiahs both old and neu.
We’re treated to a Damo cameo with Belgian experimentalists Vision Fortune early on in the night, with the cult musician taking to the stage for the final song of their clattering, angular set. His presence is a welcome surge in their barbarous, sub-These New Puritans performance. Industrial drums and untenable synth whirrs find a curious anchor in Suzuki’s improvised vocal hurling. With long, greyed hair and a casual look, Suzuki is the archetypal old-boy artist; through crowd rumours we hear that his luggage didn’t arrive with his flight and so the loving promoters, Bad Vibrations, paid to kit him out in Rough Trade. It’s a romantic image that seems to fit with his legend – a wandering traveller. He was recruited to Can in 1970 having been found busking outside a café in Munich, performing as impromptu vocalist with them for the first time that very evening.
As Damo blends into the merch desk (a variety of experimental releases and live performances aside a petition to release a wrongly-imprisoned Japanese citizen), we’re treated to the first of two performances from Astral Pattern. An old drum machine and a selection of vintage synths lain across the stage. The former S.C.U.M. trio are electronic educators of the most heavenly creation. Their new material is as vibrant and arpeggiated as you might find from revivalists of the warped electronic constructs of ‘60s and ‘70s Germany, with sequenced beats and a triumvirate of oscillating synthesisers beaming brightly, melodies always ascending, crossing over in folds of spiralling analogue. On tracks like ‘Sitting In The Sun’, Mel Rigby’s warm vocal glosses over these sounds like a whispering arc, and their sonic spectrum is brought to it’s most harmonious palette.
After fifteen minutes of crowded anticipation, Astral Pattern then return to the stage for the headline performance. Having only met Damo at sound check, the band can say little to describe how the performance will pan out. “We’re supposed to be playing for an hour but it looks like it’s going to last until at least tomorrow”, Crack is informed, before the droning sequences begin their ascent. Damo’s centre-stage death grip upon the microphone is supplemented with closed and concentrating eyes as he bellows out his grizzled, self-composed “stone age” language (a kind of droning Japanglish) like an avant-garde caveperson. And as beats fall into place and beeps jostle with slow, ethereal chords, Suzuki is composed; while his nonsensical utterings could be mistaken for madness, he is a relentless and compelling presence upon the stage.
The drones float onwards through time and tempo, and the evening is ultimately one of intense experimentalism; a fascinating insight into the workings of a musical icon and his disciples.
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Words: James Balmont
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