So, Cargo then. Live-wise, it really is his spiritual home, or at least it should be. In years to come maybe we should get a blue plaque placed on the wall or something. It was loud. LOUD. Trouser-flapping, freq-ripping loud. Good loud though not bad, ear-shrieking loud. But it didn’t start that way. Shatterproof and He’s A Liquid suffered from a sound issue that subdued both songs, everything not kicking in until Evergreen. All I can remember of No-one Driving is BASS. I was watching from the DJ Booth, if you’ve not been to Cargo – it’s basically a few old railway arches, and the DJ Booth is a small arch within the arch. Consequently, this is where all the bass seemed to collect as sound. I was wearing jeans and they flapped. They flapped like flags in a force 10. Brilliant.
The first new one up was Evidence - a beautiful little track, coupled with a very arresting visual of cut-up flowers or orchids splicing and shifting, strangely giving it a very Burroughsian feel that I doubt is in the song itself. Running Man never, ever fails to deliver and I will never tire of the 60s Spy-Fi graphics by Barnbrook that accompany it. My Town was so brief and fleeting – a fragment of memory says it was a very delicate, wistful song over some tight, Kraftwerk-like beat – but I could be very, very wrong.
Burning Car with Hannah Peel on violin – that will never, ever get old. It’s such a joy to hear a song you love so much given new life that you didn’t think it needed but was glad when it happened anyhow. Peel also joins in for vocals during a storming Catwalk – if I had one change I’d like to see, it’d be more vocals from Peel as they work so well with Foxx’s. Mention must go to Benge whose drumming was incredibly tight tonight (Serafina Steer wasn’t able to perform at Cargo).
In between the smoke and noise, we had a superb DJ set from Cabaret Voltaire’s Stephen Mallinder – mixing up Throbbing Gristle and Minimal Wave stuff with his own electronics, and a stunning set from Tara Busch.
I freely admit, I really didn’t ‘get’ Busch at XOYO at all, but here at Cargo her ideas and her music were given the space to breathe and move. Busch performed her new album project I Speak Machine in its entirety live. Foxx once said of Gareth Jones; ‘he’s like a human blur’ – much the same could be said of Busch. Busch was nestled in behind bunkers of Moog, pedals and light, swiftly moving, singing, playing, mixing seemingly all at once, creating a wonderful live experience. I got it this time and I hope she plays on these shores again soon.
