One of the finest line-ups the capital’s witnessed thus far in 2012 comes to London’s Bishopsgate Institute tomorrow night (Friday 27th January), and the Quietus will be there, for the alternately stern and spectral styles of King Midas Sound, Leyland James Kirby and Raime.
Jonny Mugwump’s excellent Exotic Pylon series, which usually takes place in the Vortex, has upgraded to that venue’s larger confines just for this evening, entitled A Night In The Haunted Dancehall.
King Midas Sound, the lovers’ dub project of The Bug’s Kevin Martin, are an impressively muscular live act. Despite their music’s softer edges compared to Martin’s usual output, in the live arena they’re a formidable prospect, all towering walls of dread sub-bass.
Raime, signed to the Blackest Ever Black label, are similar in tone, though draw their heavy sense of foreboding largely from the textures of old industrial and post-punk records.
Leyland James Kirby is also set to make a rare live appearance. His music both as The Caretaker and Leyland Kirby is fragile and beautiful, exploring ideas of memory and decay with deftly recontextualised samples and synth work. As the mastermind behind the subversive V/Vm project, it’s worth expecting the unexpected – the last time the Quietus saw Kirby live, he opened his set by rolling down a staircase to a pitched-up version of ‘Ace Of Spaces’, and ended by miming the entirety of Elton John’s ‘Can You Feel The Love Tonight’.
Tickets are almost sold out for the gig, but the last few remaining are available here. We’d recommend snapping them up sharpish.