Cornelius at the Shepherds Bush Empire

Cornelius at the Shepherds Bush Empire

05 August, 2008
by: Domzig

My life has been a beard-fest recently, what with a new housemate in love with Battles and recent tangles with Sigur Rós and Red Sparrowes, it’s a wonder that I’m not living in a cabin in the woods somewhere obsessing over how I can attach a washboard to a wah-wah pedal.

Like some sort of weird aversion therapy, Cornelius at Shepherds Bush Empire seems like an amazing idea. In fact as we roll up to the venue on a rainy Sunday evening, I realise that I’m as at least as excited about this show as I was about seeing the Beastie Boys when I was 14. What the fuck has happened to me?

Fuck Buttons kick off the opening set in a way that leaves most of us scratching our heads. In times gone by you’d expect the Bristol-based twosome to destroy your mind with bowel loosening drone-electro that sounds like Brian Eno’s evil twin, but tonight it’s different. Instead of sounding like death grinding his teeth, the band sound, well almost nice, with a set that bounces along quite happily and has a few toes tapping by the time they wrap up. It’s not bad, just a little unexpected.

If anyone was thinking that ‘normal’ service was about to be resumed, they are about to be sorely disappointed. Cornelius has to be one of the most unpredictable musicians ever – combining a Madonna-esque light show, ethereal space rock and clips from what seems at times to be lost episodes of Morph into an all singing, all dancing rock show that seems to skitter off in random directions. One minute the sound is all cutesy J-rock and the next it’s wandered off into some of dirtiest fuzz-bass since The Melvins’ first record.

It’s hard not to be impressed with a guy who seems to have his shit so wired. It’s almost like watching ‘Dark Side of the Moon’-era Floyd at times, with the lights, video and band working together to create an experience that was intense, slick and utterly captivating. Even though the band plays for almost two hours, it never, at any moment feels like a chore.

Ending with a notably clever encore that utilised a sampler, Tony Christee and a vocoder, it has to be said that this is one of the most complete and expansive shows I’ve seen for a long time. It would seem that while sticking to tried and tested pop formulas, Cornelius has explored the corners of the whole AV/light show thing and has come up with some pretty mind expanding shit.

Cornelius's new single 'Beep It' is out at the end of November, You can find out some more details at www.cornelius-sound.com. Click here to check out what's going on at Shepherds Bush Empire


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