Spartacus, Eeebleee and Dark Phase @ Wheatsheaf 20/09/03

First, a little moan about electronic music. Yes it is fun and cool to control your whole set from some buttons right in front of you, but it doesn't make very good entertainment when you just seem to mumble over the noise, with minimal bleeps and blops. But this is what Dark Phase do, marking the return of James North formerly of The Klyvz. James, you've shown before you can do much better.

However taking a more interesting turn with electronic music are Eeebleee. Those of us around Oxford already know what a good little band they are, but now even more so. There isn't another band where each member can pull the sound apart in such as way as they can, but yet for it all to sound so coherent together. It was also interesting to see Div developing as a 'lead singer'. He has developed an odd little nodding style, similar to that other great rock experimenter, Thom Yorke.

How would you imagine a band consisting half a country band, a bluesy singer, two guitars, two basses, two drums and a writer from Kerrang (no this isn't a joke) to sound like? Pretty much what you expect really, throwing everything they have in their reach, including the kitchen sink if you'd let them (probably), to create noise. However there are two sides to Spartacus, one side - the instrumental side - works quite well, but the singing side often feels a bit repetitive. But if you need fun, over the top (but not quite Darkness OTT), Spartacus pretty much fit the bill.


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