Monday 17th September 07 - Open Mic Night at the Adelphi Club featuring So So Modern (1/2) By Michelle Dee Our (Kiwi) Friends Electric

(1/2), (2/2).

Another open mic review from Adelphi - that must mean Paul Jackson is booking some great bands for the very popular Monday nights. Yes it may be free but it's still hugely popular with the growing hip hop and rap fans. They take to the stage after practicing their rhymes in the cold and wet giving the smokers something to listen to whilst they indulge in their shameful pastime (I'm a smoker and I feel very aggrieved by the fact I'm being forced outside) email smokersunite@thisisull.com if you agree or even if you don't.

I arrive in time to hear the last two songs by Stickpin. This is particularly poignant because singer/songwriter Katie Horrocks, now leaving Hull, has been a regular contributor to the poetry pages on this site (check out her one about Tony Blair chopping vegetables - it's a real gem). She has a powerful voice that cuts across the noise in the club and the songs move along thanks to strumming from Rucko (Afterglow) and a third member on bass whose name I didn't catch.

Stickpin has some way to go, more control and subtlety is needed in the vocal delivery but Katie and co. have the seeds of something good and should not be written off without a second or third listen. We wish Katie all the best with her move to Liverpool Uni and hope she continues to contribute to thisisUll.com. Look out for the odd return gig by Stickpin in the coming months.

I remember a rousing song lamenting the standard of our railways being played but aside from that nothing else remains in the mind except tonight's main band attraction; SosoModern.

During the night a local buzz has grown up among the musicians from local bands commenting on the presence of instruments at the side of the stage. They got two synths, says Bill, they gotta be worth a look. And boy, was he right. SosoModern, a four piece from Wellington take to the stage in white hooded jumpsuits and looking like a cross between Kraftwerk and the guys in space suits from Wonka TV.

They play a heady mix of genre crossing electronica. They hoik up the excitement with electro key sequences then build body with broken up guitar sequences grounded with split second drumbeats ... Now one of them is playing an eighties style keyboard swung around like an axe.

Heavy, frenzied keys spliced with staccato strings, rapid fire lyrics and SosoModern have got the attention of everyone in the club. The guy next to me is transfixed by every note (he tells me so afterwards) as the eye-catching energized band, enthral and entertain. A trio of voices ring out during a track that could be described as indie synth pop with intense hand claps from behind the hood. Synchrony and symmetry as the middle two guys mirror each others movements on guitars. Falling highly pitched sounds with varying tempo changes during a section I dubbed superhero instrumental that falls away into buggy (insect like) synth sounds buzzing humming broken up tunes.

Then follows yet more swirling masses of synth and keyboard trickery. "A little more Juno in the fall back," a white hooded musician cries from the stage. Having been underexposed to this genre I compared them to The Warm, Japanese electro-punk industrialists; although there was also something prog rock in the long instrumentals that was bordering into Yes territory, particularly noticeable when listening to SosoModern's CD.

One track opens similar to the nineties house track Ultimate Guide to Housework by Tasha Killer Pussies with a slow built up engine sound that grows until you can imagine the whole band taking off. This deep reverberation morphs into guitars and some recognisable song structure then flits of once more into electro. Squeaks, whirrs, whistles and bangs.

Continued..... Next Page (2/2)

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