brothers of reinvention
Annie Christian, live, Aberdeen Uni, November 2001,
Forget all you know or think you know
about annie christian. In the two years since the Edinburgh
quartet parted ways with V2, they have tumbled through the looking
glass and finally found their groove.
The band who saunter out to a crashing slice of looped, Hendrix
guitar-sampling electronica declaring Rock n roll is the devil,s
music, are not the speed-freakin, snotty youths who posed, preened
and sneered their way to modest acclaim at the arse-end of Britpop.
Nor are they the same outfit who then went ricocheting off on
a beatbox frenzy, declaring disdain for guitar-led debut album
Twilight, (though, deliberately or not, the lyrics to old-school
crowd pleasers The Other Way, and Love This Life, are fluffed
tonight) and bowing down before the groovebox god.
At last, it seems they've nailed it.
Their keyboard and sample-overkill has been tempered and coils
tightly around an impressive hammering of guitars.
Semi-temping keyboardist Chris Bathgate, a former Ganger axeman,
lends extra weight on guitars to Chris Adams and Larry Lean,s
amp-abuse on first two tracks Call Us Queer, (full-frontal shock-tactics
gay activist anthem) which segues evilly into Twilight, wrapping
up with a Godzilla-sized rock-out ending.
There is a darker, hardcore rock at the heart of the new annie
christian, that balances effects-heavy atmospherics and the camp
theatrics. Look In The Eyes, with its cocaine, ketamine, heroin,
mantra has the tingling intro to Satan, from last year's Saturday
Night, Sunday Morning EP, washing over it, a small stroke of genius.
As is the surprising solo cover of Kylie,s Can,t Get You Out Of
My Head, by Lean, which goes down well with the fresher-heavy
crowd.
It,s always harder second time around, but if annie christian
can,t do it on this form, there truly is no pop justice.
(Vicky Davidson)