Saw Yo! Majesty smash down it down in Toronto again tonight, as two of the notorious three and Taxlo Dj Chris O passed through for the first time since their NXNE show case. It seems the last time they came through one of them was refused border crossing due to "habitually driving without a license," well she was present and semi-nude on this occasion - the others absence went uncommented on.

The new material sounds as rough and in your face as their past out put. The gig bordered on a karaoke session in parts as they performed this rather riotous cover of Justice/Simian's "We Are Your Friends," some old soul number and countless bursts of cheese, including pushing the crowd along in joint sway to Daft Punk. Then there was a preachy moment where we were advised not to fall for the "deceptions of the devil," that left most of the crowd standing their wide eyed but dripped in sweat.

Overall left feeling that I'd rather have seen Chris O do what ever it is these Taxlo sorts get up to on one of their nights down in Maryland, all the right names seem to pass through their outings and the noises his drum machine/pad were setting off were well to my liking. If you like this sort of buzz then do check out Thunderheist.

Speaking of Simian, I was dragged along to see their new Mobile Disco last week too - their stage set up is pretty impressive, with so many wires and knobs being twiddled that its hard to figure out how much is for show, how much they are actually affecting the music and whats just performance for a generation that never really sees much hardware used to play dance music these days.

It got nice deep and bassy in parts, but really that was used to elicit cries of "what the fuck was that!" from the crowd of indie-dancers present. When it got heavy it got real heavy, unfortunately they never kept it throbbing enough to sway you, moving up the scale and back to distorted effects and squelches as fast as they could for some mass - but enthused - head nodding. I'd really gotten some kicks from the New Rave mix they put together for NME about a year and a half ago, to see them DJ would be far more interesting I think.

Elsewhere: In anticipation of the upcoming Nuit Blanche, the Toronto Star carried an interesting article that weaves its way through the meanings given to darkness and night time through history and by different societies.

Labels: Blogging, Gig Review, Music, simian mobile disco, yo majesty