Magik Markers

The Cavern Club, Bristol | 22 September

The non-stop onslaught that is Cacophonous Sarcophagus continues its relentless surge through Bristol. Dredging the obscurest depths from the murky channel of underground noise-makers, this time they pull up a stoner’s odyssey and chuck it in one of the last legit venues in the city.

We descend into the depths of the Cavern Club and are met by a wall of noise conjured up by Speed The Plough, tonight’s opening act. The latest in a long line of projects from Beak> drummer Matt Loveridge, they trade on that tried-and-true loud-quiet-loud formula, mix it with some weighty Kyussian sludge-riffidge and throw in a little post-emo angst. Mumbled patter about stained sheets collide with wailing screams (probably also about stained sheets) to complete the look. Strong start.

Older but none-the-nicer, Henry Blacker provide the meat in tonight’s sandwich. Walls of dense, full-spectrum guitar noise are lashed to drunken-pirate-on-cider vocals, middle-class anger and the frustrations of modern living.

Magik Markers have been at it for a while now. Their early work was heavily improvised and obtuse, and while this set still drew strong and long from that approach, songwriting has since crept into later material. Alternating between playing her electric guitar upright like a double-bass and sitting with it on her lap like a zither, Elisa Ambrogio provides a running spoken-word commentary while the rest of the band reel out motorik rhythms and free-associated melodies that whirl in and out of the loose but accepted structures.

It’s a pleasure to see such a confident band in their element, and all credit to Cacophonus Sarcophagus for once again providing the time and space for it to happen.

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Words: Steven Dores

Photography: Louise Brady