review of womb + gary fisher at gulliver's last week

Thursday last week Womb played Stroke Club at Gullivers. Gary Fisher played support.

Gary's set was similar to the one I saw recently at Kraak but felt more coherent and less rushed. He was also helped by a far better sound - especially noticeable in the bass range, but more detailed generally.

He started again with dislocated beats and scrapes on a contact-mic'd cymbal. Gradually looping some of the sounds. After spending some time concentrating on cymbal sounds other contact-mic'd percussive sound-sources were brought in.

But it was not just percussive sounds. A loop from a Buddha Machine was deployed, and radio interference. The sound overall was immersive, hypnotic, and a lot better than at Kraak. It straddled the gap between sound art and music easily. I could have listened for a lot longer.

The sounds were well selected and fitted together well - the vibration of springs, scrapes, bangs - all exaggerated and amplified. But all sufficiently distinct to make a textured whole.

Womb played for around half an hour. In terms of structure versus looseness it fell somewhere between the just-about-holding-together sound of the Islington Mill gig at Manchester Artists' Bonfire and the greater control of the Klondyke Club gig.

The sound felt better integrated than at the Klondyke which may be the result of more clearly defined roles and relationships emerging, even though this was a different line-up than either of those performances.

The set started with all the musicians playing percussion, reacting to one another, the rhythm shifting and changing. Then they moved their respective instruments and gradually started to fill out the sound.

With guitar, bass, keyboards and saxophone the sound obviously carried superficial similarities to bands who've drawn from Jazz and Improv traditions, or are otherwise on the experimental spectrum. But I'm going to try and avoid comparisons because really they get in the way.

The loose, improvisational element of the sound happened when the group were trying out out percussive ideas or settled into a basic loop. Then one or more of the instruments - often the saxophone or keyboard - would try out a melodic figure. This would be repeated and developed, the other musicians would fill in parts of the melody, and something more structured would emerge for a time.

When the structured melodic passages emerged there was often a kind of tension. I'm not sure whether it was that tension peculiar to some forms of improvisation where you're waiting for the next thematic development. Or whether it was the tension of how long the melody would be sustained before it started to fall apart. Or perhaps some combination of both.

I think for me perhaps the first half of the set was the stronger. But this is a matter of small differences. It was an excellent gig. I'd say better than the Klondyke and heading somewhere potentially very interesting indeed.