Shhh!

I went along to the Shhh! one-day festival in Camden last weekend and was lucky to enjoy a solo performance by Stuart Braithwaite of Mogwai. He played songs by Spacemen 3 and Blind Willie Johnson as well as some of his own Mogwai songs.

I also discovered some new bands and artists.

Bleeding Heart Narrative created a soaring, cinematic sound with vocals, guitars, percussion and strings. I only caught their last two songs but was very much fixated by them and wish I’d heard more.

Conquering Animal Sound combined female vocals with guitar loops, laptop beats and samples to great effect and they went down really well with the afternoon crowd. Reminded me of MÚM, Björk and Styrofoam.

Ten played a set without pause and completely entranced me with their electro-acoustic guitar soundscapes. I’d been aware of them since their split release on Heat Death Records last year and I was quite inspired by their seamless performance. Made me want to start playing live.

Geese were totally mental. I didn’t realise they had a drummer. Then after about five minutes, a clattering of toms and cymbals burst in and added the sort of primal experimentalism you’d normally hear from an band like Boredoms. Unexpectedly noisy and brilliant.

Still Corners turned down the lights and had some esoteric projections for their set, and pretty good it was too. Whispery vocals, reverb guitars and 60s organ sounds underpinned by insistent drums. Sounded cool and made the atmosphere more gig-like.

Dean McPhee played in a small room downstairs at 10pm. I was looking forward to seeing him play as I’m a fan of his Brown Bear 12″ from last year. He’s a solo guitarist with an extremely pure tone and a sound that seems improvised but is in fact very precise. Playing a Telecaster through valve amps and effects, his guitar sound is so clean it almost sounds like chiming bells. I’m looking forward to hearing his forthcoming album this year.

A good day.