To mark five years of promoting local talent, Max’s Records founder Andzrej Batt has decided to celebrate this is in the only way he knows how – by putting on more gigs!  Indeed a lot is planned for October with tonight’s line up being fairly typical of the quality we can expect.

Laurel Amell-Cullen is clearly going places.  Armed with just an acoustic guitar, she has an almost hypnotic star quality about her and she gives off a nicely relaxed and confident air when on stage.  Instantly likeable, the strength of her material finds many people nodding approvingly.  “Hymn For Him” is gutsy and believable and “Fill Me With Sunshine” is upbeat and hopeful without being oversweet.  

  (Laurel)

Next up are Forever Can Wait whose raucous pop punk sound turns the volume up a fair few notches, immediately recalling Paramore in places.  Songs like “The Beginning” ensure that the band will appeal to a cross section of people with aggressive guitars complimented nicely by pop influenced melodies and the confidence that frontlady Tash exudes. 

Cornish three piece Auction For The Promise Club take the quality control up another level.  With two guitarists and a drummer, it could be argued that you’d expect the band to sound tinnie and perhaps a tad one dimensional.  Not a bit of it.  Singer and guitarist Zoe White-Chambers holds the audience’s gaze as the bands garage rock sound powers out.  Recalling a fuller version of The Kills in places, there is a rawness and downright dirty element to their material. 

  (Auction For The Promise Club)

The South’s kings of alternative rock Broken Links are up next with what they say will be their second to last show in the South for some time (the last is at The Brook on 28th November).  The three piece – Mark Lawrence, Phil Boulter and Lewis Betteridge – clamber up on stage and immediately launch into “Therapy Sessions In The Dark” encompassing all the tension and confidence that we’ve come to expect.  Not a minute is wasted throughout the set.  It is phenomenal.

Mark is a confident frontman with Phil and Lewis providing solid and reliable backing.  The sound that they make is mind boggling for a three piece.  Songs like “The Best Laid Plans Of Mice & Men” and “Shelter Your Loss” are stadium sized anthems with a pitch black underbelly to them. 

Despite the obvious darkness to the lyrics and the music as a whole, this is life affirming stuff doing what all great music should do.  Moving people, touching on emotions.  Grabbing you by the balls and demanding to be heard.  Broken Links are a very, very special band.  They deserve to be heard, they deserve to be huge. 

 (Broken Links)

Sadly my evening came to an abrupt halt at the end of the Links’ set.  Thankfully none other than Links’ frontman Mark Lawrence was around to review Science Of 8 Limbs‘ set….

SO8L failed to disappoint on an evening that was screaming out for some intense beats, heavy psy-ambience mixed with hard funk filtering through stoner rock via osmosis, leading to guitar riffs that would make the worlds leading riffmaker seem inadequate causing him to relearn his trade at the university of Riffs and hard knocks….SO8L fulfilled all those requirements, and beyond…. 

What’s that you say?…..”Instrumental groups are dull”…..shut up…you’re a mug….you certainly have not seen SO8L….this isn’t music, this is an ESA, an Extreme Sonic Assault, purposely built to force your mind to think differently. This isn’t a gig, it’s a life changing event! 

Playing in their spiritual home of The Joiners tonight, the crowd got exactly what they wanted. SO8L were on fire, playing everything to pinpoint accuracy, each beat, each note, the sound was mixed to perfection. Despite not having vocals, Scott has a mic on stage to talk to the crowd between songs. His words influence, you clearly see SO8L genuinely appreciate each member of the crowds attendance, there are no half-hearted words. 

It’s a late one for the boys tonight, but the crowd are dedicated, they knew what was in store, it was well worth the wait. SO8L hit the stage just after midnight instantly grabbing the attention of everyone with one of their dirtier heavier numbers, before unleashing ‘Revitalise’ to the ear drums of many. A trip to the bar, and as I return, Scott is introducing ‘On The Spot’, for me their standout track at present, a surprise really that it was being played early into their set, which I had no problem with in the slightest. The venue was blessed with probably THE greatest riff the unsigned music world will ever hear, it’s nasty! These two audio surgeons mix some massive big beat with the riff, creating a salad that would make Delia Smith soil herself. The temperature is hotting up in the venue, condensation is starting to appear on the walls, the air-con units are on max, but they just can’t cope, people are excited! The crowd are treated to ‘Kevin Spacey’, a track featured in the film ‘Jack Said’, giving the crowd a moment to close their eyes and travel along the ambient landscape SO8L are creating before them. Scott creates vast textures of sounds on his single guitar by building loops up in real-time towards the end of this track creating a magical musical orgasm, before dropping the volume down dramatically….if I didn’t quit smoking, I would have definitely need a cigarette after that! 

‘Canada’ is a track that would definitely be welcome at 2am, in a psytrance tent at Bestival. The track is deep and hypnotizing, a laser light show combined with this ambient piece of art, could really send your mind to a place that does not exist on this planet. This track is a treat. ‘Paws4Though’ calls the end of a night that can only be described as historical. SO8L is a band that, in no doubt in my mind, are destined for massive things.

Paul Lane & Mark Lawrence