Highpoint Lowlife have, for a number of years now, been at the forefront of independent electronic record labels here in London. They specialise in challenging, strange, charming and generally not your usual run of the mill electronic music, and put a lot of work in getting this out to the indie electronic loving masses. Gigs, Club nights, free music on their website using the creative commons licence, way before Trent Reznor decided to do something with it, and giving laptop mozarts a chance to have their music heard. Tonight is one of the many occasions they’ve put live gigs on – this time in the very minimalist environment of the Cafe Oto in the back streets of Dalston; not the most charming area London has to offer, but one that seems to hold a special place in the heart of those who listen to the music. Directly opposite a pentecostal christian church, it’s a strange clash of cultures it has to be said!

Starting the proceedings were the surprisingly entertaining Fighting Kites. I say surprisingly as generally I find ‘Post Rock’ a little lacking in entertainment value, and generally most bands of this genre tend to take themselves too seriously. Watching Fighting Kites was a joy as they looked so happy playing their brand of rock, and making a glorious racket at the same time. One of the guitarists spent time switching between guitar, drums, and setting up background loops on their laptop, whilst the bass player kept a simple rhythm going, and the lead guitarist interspersing everything else going on with understated, sweet, melodies. They made quite an impression on me utilising everything they could lay their hands on to create their music, and also apologising to the sound man for generally being a pain to soundcheck was nice of them. Well worth checking out.

Erstlaub hails from Scotland and creates moody, brooding, drone filled, soundscapes. The best way to describe the feeling of hearing Erstlaub live is drowning in black syrup!! Slightly scary, dark, but overall sweet and satisfying….if drowning in black syrup can be described in such a way If you happen to think Power Electronics is seriously sinister and scary, you should check this guy out – way more frightening than anything Power Electronics could produce in my humble opinion. The music oozes menace, and lures you in to a false sense of security, whilst pummling all of your available senses. A strange, but enjoyable experience.

Mandlebrot Set, to me, is the Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde of guitar based drone music. Ranging from subtle sounds to full on chaotic noise – not disimilar to Merzbow, except take his laptops away from him and just give him guitars and effects pedals to play with instead, and I imagine what he would come out with would be similar to Mandlebrot Set. Keung is a sweet, softly spoken man and you truly do not expect him to make such a beautiful noise….particular just using guitars and effects – although having said that, his effects pedal setup is pretty damn impressive and he uses it to mesmerising effect. For me though his set was far too short, even when the noise was battering my ears, I could have listened for another hour at least. Stunning.

Ending the evenings proceeding was The Village Orchestra featuring members of The Marcia Blaine School for Girls. This was very much a performance piece, rather than a general laptop music performance, as earlier in the day The Village Orchestra walked around Dalston, and the neighbouring area of Stoke Newington, recording sounds, samples and everyday noise, and they literally used these recordings to create what we heard right there and then. It was very impressive due to the fact that it was sheer improvisation and it could have either fallen flat, or worked to great effect. Luckily for them it worked really well, and coupling it with a visual performance too, it was quite an audio visual feast. An exceptionally brave move, and definitely one that pushed some very real boundaries.

In all this was an exceptional evening of music with real depth and character. Is there any wonder that Highpoint Lowlife is one of my favourite labels when they are championing music this good? – Missyk8