Matthew Levinson

Lali Puna at O-East

Published on 04/05/05
by matt

Straight outta Berlin was the theme for last night’s gig at O-East in Shibuya. The Goethe Institut conveniently put together a bunch of acts I missed in Berlin a few weeks ago.
I was down about missing Stephan Betke’s (Pole) huge Scape showcase at the Volksbuhne the night after we left Berlin. So the sinuous, heavily layered, musical dub he brewed up last night was great.
The MIA on the bill wasn’t the Sri Lanka via London one, instead it was an MIA that despite being dressed in underwear and a pile of tinsel was entirely boring.
With drums, keys, laptops and vocals, Mouse On Mars had the crowd writhing to their loping electronic grooves. The place erupted when the bass player started the intro to Wipe That Sound. They eventually finished with the punk-noise DJs Collapse collab (which was originally recorded with Matthew Herbert), which the Japanese crowd yelled along to.
If anyone’s placed to lead the acid house revival it’s Atom Heart. His set was a loose warm rhythm that stepped into deep warm house, squiggly acid and crackling detroit drums. Really fantastic, wish I could’ve seen his Senor Coconut set the night before (along with Monolake and Apparat, but it was just too expensive to go both nights).
Lali Puna create a beguiling, unaffected pop music that takes bits from glitchy experimental electronics and soft indie pop. Cue singing along: “Where do you want to go / You were the last to know / Your future.” Fantastic.

Lali Puna at Soundz From Germany

Soundz From Germany confirms that for all the talk of crossover indie dance music from the UK, the people creating music that really walks the line between indie and electronic music, in a totally unaffected way, are doing it in Berlin not London.

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