Music Week: James Yuill Review

How do you like your electronica? James Yuill, Capac and co showed us just how inventive it can be in the right hands.

Officially, last night’s Mojo free show was a Hive Collective presentation, supported by the excellent Bido Lito. If you’d have been there, you might have thought it was sponsored by Apple. The night after Hallowe’en and there was quite a bit of Apple bobbing still going down on Mojo’s stage, as a succession of laptop-friendly ensembles ensured the treats were nicely served with a side order of tricks.

SevenStreets was too late to catch the DNA Orchestra, alas, but arrived in time to see Capac deliver the kind of subhuman bass that can only be heard by certain types of Orca. We felt it though. And it felt good. Pounding away on their electronic pads and keys like latter day fire and brimstone preachers, Capac play with a zeal that’s infectious, and bring their debut set, Pastels, vividly, thunderingly alive. Visuals are great, too. Not all electronic evangelists are content to just sit behind a MacBook and doodle, you know.

Glasgow’s Silver Columns crashed into our consciousness like a hit of poppers. All stripped back techno, gut churning dub-step and on-stage histrionics. Not all their stuff is as intelligent, or as emotionally complex as the Capac boys’, but by the end of their tight set, when they dived into the crowd with a floor tom and megaphone, they’d won us around. In the cold light of day we’d be hard pressed to remember exactly why, but at the time it felt good.

James Yuill’s set leaned heavily on his second album - the shimmering synth hooks, crunchy bass and skittish percussion of Movement In A Storm. Just to ensure we didn’t completely throw away the Folktronica tab, he took to the stage with an acoustic guitar slung around his neck.

But really, his love affair with his on-stage gizmos has taken over. And he uses them to mesmirising effect. Set opener Give You Away came on like a sugar rush, while On Your Own gave the respectable Monday night crowd reason enough to keep bouncing away, considering it was, now, gone midnight, the night after all those Hallowe’en parties.

Yuill, Silver Column’s Moshi Moshi stablemate, can still do tender, despite being trapped inside his cage of wires and effects, but despite his lone, and slightly fragile looking stage presence, when Yuill’s electronic toys are at full pelt, his voice pitched against a chorus of his own vocal samples, the effect is almost transcendent. Rarely have we seen so much delicious, danceable goodness delivered by one man.

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