{"id":7863,"date":"2010-09-03T17:01:29","date_gmt":"2010-09-03T17:01:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thejoycollective.co.uk\/blog\/?p=7863"},"modified":"2014-09-05T18:14:58","modified_gmt":"2014-09-05T18:14:58","slug":"gruff-rhys-and-tony-da-gatorra-islet-clwb-ifor-bach-29-07-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/review\/gruff-rhys-and-tony-da-gatorra-islet-clwb-ifor-bach-29-07-10\/","title":{"rendered":"Gruff Rhys and Tony Da Gatorra \/ Islet : Clwb Ifor Bach : 29.07.10"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The best thing about Islet is that their first notes can make a Joy Collective writer\u00a0break off\u00a0a conversation with a shout of \u201cI FUCKING LOVE THIS ONE!\u201d before rushing to the front of the stage.\u00a0 The best thing about Islet is that every member of the band is the best one.\u00a0 The best thing about Islet is that you can\u2019t take your eyes off any of them because they\u2019re about to do something brilliant \u2013 wander into the crowd, switch instruments, howl wordlessly off-mic.\u00a0 The best thing about Islet is that they actually play pretty uncommercial music, but with a force and presence that makes beaming converts even in early evening support slots.\u00a0 The best thing about Islet is that you can feel them growing from something that \u201cworks best live\u201d into a genuinely thrilling band without having to change a thing.\u00a0 The best thing about Islet is that when there\u2019s two of them drumming together it sounds like six people drumming.\u00a0 The best thing about Islet is that the two drummers knock sticks together during solos.\u00a0 The best thing about Islet is that they can work rooms the size of upstairs at Clwb and force people to get involved, and that you know they could easily do the same for bigger rooms, or festival crowds \u2013 wheeling around, spilling drinks, engaging with people.\u00a0 The best thing about Islet is that Alex ends the set drumming on my back.\u00a0 The best thing about Islet is the room full of grins afterwards.\u00a0 The best thing about Islet is that they keep getting fucking better.<\/p>\n

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The positive response afforded Islet \u2013 even the baffled faces are smiling \u2013 gives you a feeling of cautious optimism about how Gruff Rhys and Tony Da Gatorra will be received.\u00a0 Last night\u2019s show, albeit the second to be announced and thus possibly attended by more floating voters and casual SFA fans unfamiliar with Gruff\u2019s more out-there whims, apparently endured disappointed muttering and walkouts as it became gradually apparent that there wouldn\u2019t be so much as a Candylion, let alone any hits for old time\u2019s sake.\u00a0 Whether or not tonight\u2019s crowd were more savvy to the backstory behind Gruff\u2019s link-up with the Brazilian TV repairman and home-made instrument enthusiast, there\u2019s an air of genuine affection for our host\u2019s typically endearing, faltering introductions and his new-found brother in rhythm (\u201cNo notes. Only rhythm\u201d) with his universal sounds of self-expression and personal protest.<\/p>\n

In any case, it\u2019s not like the parameters for the evening aren\u2019t set from the off.\u00a0 Gruff\u2019s intro explains the basis for the collaboration, the linguistic barriers the two face in working together and a little of the socio-political background to Gatorra\u2019s homespun, almost outsider folk jams about inequality and corruption in his home country.\u00a0 The two take turns to perform their songs from The Terror Of Cosmic Loneliness<\/em>, each improvising on guitar, the unique hybrid Gatorra itself and vocals to back up the other.\u00a0 With some noticeably wincing at the chattering, occasionally arrhythmic patterns of Da Gatorra\u2019s instrument, Rhys\u2019 \u2018In A House With No Mirrors\u2019 is a relief, many grasping for more coherence along those lines.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As Da Gatorra embarks on increasingly lengthy and rhythmically complex condemnations of injustice and calls for peace, hammering away at the buttons and dials on his instrument, Rhys tapes agit-prop soundbites (Violence! Elitism! Impunity!) to the backdrop and looks on with a beatific grin before resuming his own contribution.\u00a0 It\u2019s often hard work, to be fair, but the overwhelming feeling half an hour or so into the set is not just that actually, this is great (it is), but that this is possibly the largest mainstream (ish) crowd ever to witness music this wilfully difficult, this out there, certainly in Wales.\u00a0 And you start grinning too.<\/p>\n

But while it\u2019s tempting to view the playfulness of the cultural exchange \u2013 the Power Ranger helmet, the Wolfie Smith slogans, Gatorra\u2019s headband proclaiming \u2018PAZ!\u2019 and his general look of Brian Hibbard doing Spinal Tap \u2013 as a conceptual joke on Gruff\u2019s part, both men are clearly not only enjoying themselves immensely but deadly serious about the music they\u2019ve made together, the ability of English, Welsh and Portuguese-speaking men to collaborate with no shared language other than sound and a try-anything attitude.\u00a0 Those willing to share in the spirit are rewarded, if you need to see it that way, with a run through Candylion<\/em>\u2019s \u2018Gyrru Gyrru Gyrru\u2019 and, thrillingly, the old Ffa Coffi Pawb tune \u2018Valium\u2019.\u00a0 The point, though, is maybe that a few minds opened to the possibility of what music can do to reach people.\u00a0 \u201cBloody hell\u201d, muses one chap in the gents\u2019 afterwards, \u201cand I thought the first lot were weird!\u201d.\u00a0 As a baffled but happy assessment of the evening, that\u2019s hard to top.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The best thing about Islet is that their first notes can make a Joy Collective writer\u00a0break off\u00a0a conversation with a shout of \u201cI FUCKING LOVE THIS ONE!\u201d before rushing to the front of the stage.\u00a0 The best thing about Islet is that every member of the band is the best one.\u00a0 The best thing about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[459],"tags":[1472,524,1421,568,1473,498,1471],"class_list":["post-7863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-review","tag-chiffy","tag-clwb-ifor-bach","tag-gruff-rhys","tag-islet","tag-paz","tag-swn","tag-tony-da-gatorra"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7863\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonnyjaniero.com\/thejoycollective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}