Not a lot of uncomplicated enjoyment on offer at tonight’s Oxjam fundraiser, which is a long way from saying there was no good music. Angular guitar-and-cello duo Cogwheel Dogs got the evening off to a more-than-decent start, with an immaculately played set of occasionally awkward, but often highly potent ballads. Latest single ‘Cress’ is a grower (pardon the pun) and tonight is performed with tremendous bluesy brio. The excellent, misty-eyed ‘Ghostwriter’ doesn’t suffer much from the absence of the hypnotic typewriter which graces the record, and even the underwhelming-on-CD ‘Anticoagulant’ seems better balanced tonight, with Rebecca Mosley’s ever-more-authoritative singing keeping Tom Parnell’s screeching cello from freaking out the squares just that little bit too much.

‘I Love You every Time You Smile’. Uhhhh. Sweet, right? Very Lionel Ritchie or Randy Newman? Read it a couple more times and it starts to look decidedly ambiguous. Anyway, this is the least-inaccessible tune in Sunnyvale Noise Sub-Element’s canon, and the best introduction to their arty, abstract post-rock constructions, which involves sophisticated programmed beats, samples and guitar playing which alternates between the almost indie-ish (as on the hypnotic riff of ‘Smile’) and ferocious squalls of terrifying noise. Indeed there is an almost comic disconnect between the visceral pounding that the boffinish Simon Minter gives his axe and the quiet, almost apologetic friendliness of his interactions with the audience. In an ideal world, Sunnyvale would have a residency at one of London’s more dangerous nightclubs, as their best numbers seem to be made for dancers at the very edge of reason, rather than the immobile chin-strokers of tonight’s Wheatsheaf.

On to Norwich’s Sennen, who threw soundman Joal into raptures with a set of indie pop that made him talk of bands like Seafood and other shoegazing luminaries. I’d throw in Teenage Fanclub and even the Raveonettes, due to their extensive use of unusually far-apart harmonies: sixths and octaves in particular. To be honest, I found most of their songs rather soporific: they’d give us two minutes of atmospheric post-punk (with the ultra-catchy ‘Blackout’ being a stand-out) or folky Furries-influenced ballads and then meander on with ever-decreasing returns. Still, the harmonies are wonderful and they’re not Turin Brakes, so for that relief much thanks.

Closing the evening were indie rockers The Half Rabbits, who I still can’t quite get. I’m sorry, I’m really sorry, because I know they are really tight, they have a highly distinctive singer in Michael Weatherburn, they can rock as hard as Smashing Pumpkins and lots of cool people like them. In addition, they have an interesting ‘bubbling’ interplay between the bass and guitars which adds further to their originality (best heard on their most memorable song ‘This Changes Everything’), but I still came away from the gig unable to remember an awful lot of their set. I guess it’s not them, it’s me, but I still think Weatherburn’s vocal melodies verge from the nursery-rhyme to the incomprehensible with little in between. If they can find one or two more killer tunes they’ll be unstoppable.

By Colin MacKinnon

Here’s a shot from last night’s Wheatsheaf Oxjam gig by Daniel Paxton. Photos of The Half Rabbits, Sennen, Sunnyvale and Cogwheel Dogs can be found over here.

The next OxfordBands.com live show is a special one, as we’re raising money for Oxfam’s Oxjam music festival. Headlining are The Half Rabbits, who appeared on MTV as a result of the video from their last OxfordBands Oxjam gig in October, and are back to support the cause again. In support, we’re pleased to bring Norwich’s finest shoegaze pop outfit Sennen back to town to promote their excellent second album. We’ve also got Sunnyvale Noise Sub-element and Cogwheel Dogs to complete a fine lineup. Tickets are on sale now here. The show is on Friday 25 April at The Wheatsheaf.

A new compilation featuring several Oxford artists has just been released by French label Rabeat’s Cage, run by former Alesiachair member Jeremy Moors. The album, Premiere Evasion, includes Jonquil, Sunnyvale Noise Sub-element, Hreda and Cogwheel Dogs alongside several French artists, and is available for 12 euros here. The full tracklisting looks like this:

1. Jody Prewett - ‘An Ode to the Morning’
2. Eberg - ‘Antidote’
3. Jonquil - ‘Pattens’
4. Tam Rush - ‘Something to Wish’
5. Azad - ‘Je Ne Sais Pas Pour Qui Je Pleure’
6. Sarah W. Papsun - ‘Mouvement 2′
7. Cogwheel Dogs - ‘Cress’
8. Sunnyvale Noise Sub-element - ‘This Far and No Further’
9. Hreda - ‘Knowing How to Carry’
10. Neor - ‘Oneiros’

We’re pleased to say we’ll be offering an MP3 for free download from a local band every week on the site from now on, so keep checking back to hear some great new tunes. To kick things off, here’s a free MP3 of ‘Godzilla vs. Kathleen Hanna’ by Sunnyvale Noise Sub-element - click here to download it.

If you’re an Oxfordshire musician and would like to submit an MP3 for OxfordBands readers to download, please email stuart at oxfordbands dot com with details (but please don’t send the actual MP3s for now!) and we’ll get on the case.

So, the press info for this album contains the words ‘Berlin techno’. I fucking hate techno. Well, that isn’t entirely true. I’ve had some stonking nights out listening to drum ‘n’ bass at 130 decibels and I love DJ Shadow’s hip hop-infused sonic manipulation as much as the next total music geek. But Berlin techno? Erk, it has me reaching for the off switch faster than you can say ‘ich bin ein Dummkopf’. But Sunnyvale Noise Sub-element, on the other hand, have struck upon a marvellous idea. And that is to bypass all that ‘oonst oonst’ crap, take whatever is still relevant about electronica and fuse it with a love of all things Jesu. You’d think that it would be all pulsey, scattershot beats and clangy, minimal guitar, with perhaps layers of obscure samples and effects undercutting the whole deal. And you’d be right.

Surprisingly, things start out quite timidly on opener ‘Godzilla vs. Kathleen Hanna’, but by the time we reach ‘I Love You Every Time You Smile’, we are definitely copping a Shellac-are-our-guitar-heroes kinda vibe, along with a very post rock ethic (right down to the nuisance-length song titles). Things take a turn for the misanthropic with ‘Call This Number If You Hear Noises’, and it’s perhaps my favorite of the album, so far. At this point I’m wondering who this type of music would appeal to and I’m not having a lot of success. It’s a formula that shouldn’t really work on paper, and seems like even more of a nightmare to pull off convincingly. Then along comes a track like ‘Girl Thief’. More overtly sample-fuelled while retaining its fair share of the album’s chaos, it also drips with Fugazi-style intent. Some songs are more pointless, though, such as ‘Sputnik Was The Start Of All This Peculiar Weather’, which feels like panic stations at a nuclear power plant and has me instinctively running to my shelter.

More often than not, Box Three, Spool Five resembles Mr Broadricks’ dark, sinister alter ego (the one with the heart of pure evil) - Godflesh. Granted, it does kind of fizzle out towards the end: I think the slow build/sudden freneticism of ‘A Word About Panic Attacks’ is the last high point. And there are also a few lost ideas in there, scratching around trying to find a way out, but with music as claustrophobic as this, it’s hardly surprising. As I’ve been alluding, this is very leftfield stuff and on the whole about as accessible as Fort Knox. But if you can unlock the album’s complexity and wilfully obtuse prerogative, it is, to stick with the analogy, pure gold.