Mojo - The Music Magazine

We hear the sound of a guitar being cranked and tested. Then comes the sound of thumping drums. 'Check! 1-2! Check 1-2!' booms a voice. It is the unmistakable process of a band soundchecking. Which is fine. Apart from the fact that it's 9.05am and your correspondent is woken from slumber by it. Impressive, considering that I'm in the Sheraton on 11th Street which boast heavily glazed windows. Then again, this is SXSW, the place where music never sleeps.

If the festival has a reputation for offering up music on an almost 24/7 basis during its four day stint, it is also defined by gigs where labels showcase the finest of their emerging talent. This year MOJO is presenting one such showcase in conjunction with out friends at the Full Time Hobby and Ghostly International labels. From the UK and US respectively, both have risen to become clearly defined entities with a fine taste in music.

The showcase itself takes place at the Radio Room Patio, a vast expanse covered by a tent. The snaking queue outside suggests that this may well be one of the hottest shows of what is an already action packed evening in the SXSW schedule the likes of The Sonics, Metallica, Tricky and Devo all set to appear later tonight.

First on are Choir Of Young Believers, Denmark's rising chamber-pop troupe. Tonight, during what is their first visit to the US, the group are stripped down from their customary seven-piece line-up to the duo of guitarist/singer Jannis Makrigiannis and cellist Caecilie Trier. While in some respects this set-up removes some of the grandeur of Makrigiannis's compositions, it does little to erode the fact that he is a songwriter with the kind of twisted pop sensibilities that Talk Talk's Mark Hollis would admire. The band's debut album is due out on Ghostly later this year and promises to be a treat.

If the Choir Of Young Believers are reaching for the stars, then Abilene's Micah P. Hinson appears to be wrestling with demons in the gutter, such is the visceral quality of both his performance. In fact, if Elvis Costello had been born in Texas he may well have sounded a lot like Hinson. The fatalism of Digging A Grave and Dyin' Alone are hard to ignore, but the fact that Hinson sings these as if his very life depended on it makes his set utterly engaging. He leaves the stage to huge and justified approbation.

Hinson's blood-and-dirt earthiness is again juxtaposed with the dream-pop of School Of Seven Bells. Already toted as one of the defining bands of this year's SXSW, the three piece of ex-Secret Machines guitarist Benjamin Curtis, and twins Alejandra Deheza and Claudia Deheza cement that position this evening in front of a capacity crowd with a set of mellifluous melodies that transport us far beyond the confines of a white tent on 6th Street. MOJO remarks that the perfect setting for the trio's epic electronica may well be a cathedral. "An arena would be nice!" laughs Ghostly International honcho Jeff Owens. And the man may get his wish sooner than he thinks if the much mooted support slot with U2 materialises. Either way, we can all expect great things from the three-piece over the next six months.

The unenviable task of following SOSB falls to Deastro - the brainchild of Detroit electronic whiz kid and self-confessed Depeche Mode fanatic Randolph Chabot. Prior to the show he talks to MOJO about the need to engage with the audience. Chabot also reveals that he was raised in a Pentacostal household where music was forbidden. Rebelling against his upbringing, he nevertheless forges a sound that is full of optimism and which, for the live environment, is augmented by a band. "We're Spider Man 3: The Band," he deadpans by way of introduction, before delivering a 45-minute set with a mixture of bonhomie and sparkling post-Mode, stadium-sized electronica typified by the broken beats of Vermillion Plaza and the sway of opener Paralellogram - both taken from his forthcoming Moondagger album.

While Chabot hustles and works to win the audience White Denim have the luxury of playing a hometown show to an audience that have turned out in droves. This, it seems, spurs on the trioe of drummer Joshua Block, guitarist and singer James Petralli and youthful bassist Steve Terebecki whose gonzoid set is remarkable in terms of both performance and sheer energy to the point where it would be simple to describe them as possibly the most exciting live band in the world today.

Inspired new material like I Start To Run sits alongside songs like Shake, Shake, Shake and Let's Talk About It, and suggests that White Denim are heading away from the garage and deep into soulful territory. Their new album, due out on Full Time Hobby later this year, threatens to be a peach.

White Denim's triumph makes the task of filling the 1.00am slot even more daunting. And yet Sheffield's youthful noise insurrectionists Rolo Tomassi do so with no fear whatsoever. With a number of the band having just turned 18, keyboard player James Spence informs us that the group have had an alcohol-free sojourn. The shows, he says, have made up for it, this being their third of five.

While on record, Rolo occasional emerge as a jumble of time signatures and ideas, live they make complete sense, the dynamics of the band revolving around the presence of Eva Spence whose vocal agility allows her to switch from the angelic to the screechingly demonic in the wink of an eye. Equally impressive are Joe Nicholson's guitar runs which appear to take John McLaughlin's Mahavishnu experimentation to its logical thrashing extreme. Tracks like I Love Turbulence and Oh, Hello Ghost, prove that when it comes to uneasy listening, right now no one can touch Rolo Tomassi. An incredibly uplifting and draining experience, brings what has been a magnificent evening to a thrilling climax. Then, they leave us to face the madness of 6th Street which, after the third day of the festival, is akin to walking out into a scene from Night Of The Living Dead.

Phil Alexander

Photos courtesy of Piper Ferguson

READ MOJO's DAY FOUR REPORT HERE!