LORELLE MEETS THE OBSOLETE

VENUE THE MOTH CLUB, LONDON

DATE 17/01/2019

When Spacemen 3 intoned “i smell burning” on the serrated hypnomonotony of revolution 30 years ago, no one quite expected some of their descendants to take them at their word. Yet so it seems tonight, as the odour of smoke grows ever stronger in the compact environs of this gloriously refurbished east end working men’s club. and the cause of the potential calamity is a faulty bass amp that’s been driven mercilessly to ignition towards the end of Lorelle meets the Obsolete’s beguiling set.

with near-disaster deftly dealt with, it’s worth noting that the majority of tonight’s drama comes less from temperamental equipment and more from the music emanating not just from the stage, but also the speakers that surround the inside of the venue. From the front comes the solid rhythm section augmented by keyboards, while all around are waves of a twin guitar attack fed through fuzz boxes, tremolos and delay pedals. the net result is a gloriously immersive sonic experience that bathes the audience in sound.

But there is so much more to Lorelle meets the Obsolete than a fine and effective aural delivery. with their recently released fifth album, De Facto, the mexican psych outfit centred around the duo of Lorelle (that’s Lorena Quintanilla on vocals and guitar) and the Obsolete (guitarist alberto González) elected to include their touring band in the recording process. Consequently, they produced their most fully realised effort to date, and the inclusion of more musicians at source means that the quintet on stage play with a greater sense of investment and unity.

as with their new album, the band open with the ominous, funereal dirge of ana, but the mood is soon lifted within the first few moments of what’s Holding You?, as the band do what they do best: merging elemental yet effective drumming and percussion with overdriven bass lines that seal the amp’s fate, along with a dual sixstring assault topped off with Lorelle’s breathy vocals.

and while Líneas en Hojas later follows suit with a deceptive creaminess, Lux, Lumina goes some way to subverting their own modus operandi, for here is a sense of menace and dread that’s entirely in keeping with the rudderless chaos that’s currently characterising the outside world.

But it’s the epic Unificado that dominates here as it slowly, yet methodically, grows over 10 minutes from delicate washes that caress to a tsunami of overwhelming distortion and disorientation.

Burning both figuratively and literally, Lorelle meets the Obsolete shine bright in London tonight.