Pendulum: Live at Brixton Academy
Pendulum's Brixton Academy show comes to CD and DVD
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Tuesday, 16, Jun 2009 09:01
Warner Music, out now.
In a nutshell...
Others' music + heavy bass = hit + miss
What's it all about?
Between December 4th and 5th, Pendulum recorded a seminal work: their live gig at the Brixton Academy. Obviously this means that one night wasn't outstanding, nor were they evenly distributing the awesomeness, instead hacking and slashing the performances to get their best song renditions on there. No matter; it's still a good package.
Who's it by?
Are they Australian or British? It seems to be a joint venture since their relocation to the UK in 2003, though it wasn't until 2005 when they made a name for themselves with Hold Your Colour and their collaboration with Freestylers on Fasten Your Seatbelts, which wasn't a bad effort in the slightest.
Since then, they've toured the UK universities before making it in the US, appearing on Carson Daly and Jimmy Kimmel. Impressive stuff, really.
Likelihood of a trip to the Grammys
Bands like this never really have the same amount of potential as their more vocal and stylish counterparts, though that's not to say they aren't any good at what they do. Besides, they're recognised enough, even if this is a perfect mix of love and hatred.
What the others say
"Right throughout the summer they've been killing the crowds, they've just got it right. The right band for the right times." - Zane Lowe
"The scope of their clattering drum 'n' bass is immense. However, while they come over as obsessed with sonic futurism, they can't help but sound a little dated, regularly doffing their caps to 1990s electro-rockers Apollo 440." - Guardian
So is it any good?
It's largely noise: some good, some bad. It's just a good job that they're the drum 'n' bass equivalent of a cover band, otherwise they might struggle.
You see, the songs that illicit the best crowd reactions are the ones they haven't written. Case in point: Voodoo People, the Prodigy classic. Everyone knows it's a well-loved song and judging by the audience, they seem to think it was written by Pendulum.
It's not though, of course, and you soon realise that past some drawn-out distortion and completely pointless vocals which amount to little more than a running commentary of what the band want the crowd to do, there isn't really much of an act there.
The crowd still bloody love it though. Most people who are into eardrum S&M will probably be the same if they attended - it really is genuinely hard to disagree with their music when seen on the big stage.
They also forget Metallica ever existed. Still, their Master of Puppets remix is much better than Voodoo People, which seems to be a mix of the Prodigy and silence.
However, the heavy metal re-recording shows there are plenty of tracks which are perfectly enjoyable. Propane Nightmares is instantly recognisable and Slam is a solid offering, for example, while Showdown and Granite are pretty standard fare yet manage to be embellished and enhanced by the crowd noise.
The likes of Fasten Your Seatbelts - which is a pleasure to the ears - is regularly juxtaposed with awful tracks like Another World, making you go from happiness to plain anger, dizzy spells and possible chundering. Nice.
Whether you like Pendulum or not, this album's a solid release. It's easy to drone on about the wide array of amazing live albums that have been on the market over the years, but this offering is a genuinely good release for those who love their crowd noise. In fact, it's the shouting and screaming which gets the heart rate going faster than the sometimes disturbingly quick beats. It's like drinking 12 cans of Red Bull through your eyes.
It's hard not to feel like you're there, really. It gets too self-aware at times; it's not as easy to get into the lead singer shouting "make some f***ing noise!" when you're listening to it on the bus or in your room. To be honest, he sounds like a bit of a dick for about three-quarters of the performance.
Still, there are some good tracks - just pray you don't have a family history of migraines.
Oh, and the DVD itself? I suppose it makes the music much more watchable and attractive, yet you'll find yourself consistently disturbed by the quality of punters turning up to the gig: many seem to be looking for the Pac-man combination of bright colours, strange music and the pills. Maybe.
6.5/10
Matt Gardner