Anyone bemoaning the lack of truly unique, slightly
bonkers musicians (and no...Justin Bieber doesn’t count) these days just needs
to plug straight into the world of Connan Mockasin. Whether his claims of not
listening to anyone else’s music for the last ten years or recording his album
in a Tokyo hotel room are true or not the stuff he’s come out with so far is
delightfully idiosyncratic...or a bit nuts depending on your point of view.
Given this it was gratifying to see a brilliant turnout for tonight’s gig (it
was a sell out in fact), kicked off by promoters This Is Tmrw favourites
Teleman. Sharing a similar head space with Django Django, Dutch Uncles and Alt
J they’re one of a number of bands around right now that in better times
would’ve been playing Top Of The Pops, in turn distracting the nation’s youth
from some of the putrid filth currently masquerading as music. As it is they’ve
found support from the ever reliable 6 Music who gave Cristina and Steam Train
Girl (arguably their two strongest tracks to date) plenty of airtime last year.
This is their first gig in Brum apparently, an
announcement that’s met with a particularly enthusiastic cry of “Come back
again” after just a couple of tracks. It’s an understandable reaction given
that the band manages to cleverly blend motorik beats with more of a hipster
indie feel. There’s a touch of Blur about them at times too with lead singer Thomas
sounding a little like the lovechild of Albarn and Coxon especially on the
fairground organ driven In Your Fur (surely destined to be a future hit single?).
Elsewhere they go more Fujiya and Miyagi on our ass with the naggingly insistent
Skeleton Dance.
Time then for Mr Mockasin, this evening bedecked in white
trousers, a white silk blouse top, black leather jacket and what looked
suspiciously like his granny's sun hat. Proof that you can sometimes judge a
book by its cover Connan’s music is a similar mix of the masculine and
feminine, blending woozy psychouts with a vocal that’s occasionally so high
pitched only dogs and particularly attentive teens can hear it. Swigging from a
bottle of wine (naturally) throughout the gig the set’s relatively short on
tracks but given that some of them stretch out languidly to 10 minutes or more
that’s no real surprise. With a trio of albums under his sun hat there are
plenty of gems to choose from though and the dreamy womb of a tune Do I Make
You Feel Shy? (from new album Caramel) soon sets the tone for the evening,
lulling the capacity crowd into the kind of blissed out mood that normally
follows some serious action in the sack. Connan was just getting started
though, flipping us over and gently wooing us with It’s Choade My Dear, a tune
with such weird notes and vocals that it should frankly be labelled a Class A
drug. Seriously what tunings are his guitar in? Every note sounds so wrong and
yet so right at the same time. It’s really, really STRANGE. Ramping up the
weird I’m The Man, That Will Find You (imagine Prince after a carrier bag full
of weed) managed to be both creepy and rather sexy at the same time, with
Connan whispering sweet nothings suggestively into the microphone. Hubba hubba
ladies. Like all good lovers he saved the best till last though, with a trippy
version of his magnum opus (or mignim opis as he’d probably pronounce it)
Forever Dolphin Love.
“Ohmygod he’s soooooo sexual” moaned one young lady
towards the climax. It’s pretty unusual to come across (steady now) someone
that sounds so different to everyone/everything else these days but Mockasin’s
just that and despite (or maybe because of) the weird tunings, balls in a vice
vocals and other worldly appearance it’s a pretty captivating package. All hail
the strangely sexy God of Odd.
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