Mushi Mushi were kept on their toes with revelatory set of bone machine
disco by support act The Guessmen for this show at The Cluny, Newcastle
Upon Tyne.
The Guessmen merged so many influences into their songs that it was
hard to keep to track of what was going on beyond knowing instinctively
that it was great. Playing pure pop built on off-kilter beats and
bizarre laptop-derived sounds they managed to keep the music just
within the boundaries of pop. Constantly adjusting his fedora the
frontman growled, sang and crooned his way to being an entertaining and
natural mix of cheeky crowd pleaser and stamping blues and stout soaked
troubadour. While he turned his hand to both loudhailer and trumpet,
the guy on laptop (and clarinet) and the knob twiddling keyboardist
threw themselves into the performance with enthusiastic vocodered
backing vocals.
Following this set wasn’t a task many acts would relish
but Mushi Mushi threw themselves headlong into their tight rhythm based
electronic punk funk performance. Coming straight out of the gate with
a barrage of live drumming and broken techno sounds they fiercely ran
through a selection of toughened up tracks that retained a punchier
edge than their recorded material. With occasional live bass and guitar
playing their part alongside the drums the band rode bronco over their
action cinema mini soundtrack themes pushing the music through a filter
of electro and big beat. Mixing up their staple instrumental tracks
with a very capable female vocalist and some shouty male vocals they
played music aimed firmly at the dancefloor that stampeded from harsh
to elastic grooves putting other similarly styled bands to shame for
their lack of energy, melodies and vision.