May 15, 2003

I'm sorry to say, but Icarus bored me to tears. VERY Warp, but the bad sort of Warp that has no defineable or recognizable beat and progresses nowhere. I was actually so bored that I went up to the toilets just for something to do to kill some time, and I never do that.

Thank god for Four Tet, then. Every beautiful nuance and strum from "Rounds" comes through live, squashed through a sequencer (or a colander, I'm not sure which), and brought to life through Kieran's beaming smile. Here's one of the faceless laptop hordes who's managed to standout through personality, a quirlky love of folk lifestyle, and a music sense to make melody and rhythm the main focus, not simply an afterthought (the entire problem of the likes of Icarus). It's little wonder that the near-capacity crowd gave him such love in return - when you can polish a cold, hard medium into something warm and whimsical, your love will return on you triple-fold.

The setlist:

She moves she
Everything is alright
Glue of the other world
You could ruin my day
Tangle
Spirit fingers
Twenty three
My angel rocks back and forth
As serious as your life

Calamine