The Brudenell’s newly refurbished Community Room bids farewell to its borstal games-room vibe of yore. Instead the low stage and chalkboard black walls encourage an intimacy between performers and audience.
Even this, it seems, is insufficient for the disturbingly monikered Snapped Ankles. For tonight’s show, the East London outfit drag forward their equipment and set up their synths and makeshift instruments – a pair of tree cuttings wired for sound – out front with the audience.
Dressed identically in worker’s overalls and caps, Snapped Ankles are a curious proposition, an inkling merely compounded by the appearance of their angular, seventies student radical soundman who tinkers with cables and monitors. For a moment it feels like German industrial mischief-makers Faust has pitched up in the band’s place.
The Krautrock comparison turns out to be apposite. After a quick costume change, the band returns to the stage dressed like something out of Stig of the Dump. Thereupon they unleash a firestorm of electro-psych caterwauling of such motorik intensity the audience begins to jerk and flex like tasered crash test dummies.
It is an incredible, exhilerating performance, lying somewhere between manic art statement and pure psychedelic wig out. The drummer beats a ferocious confession out of his kit, the bass player thunders with an earthy, percussive authority, while out front is an insane blur of keyboards, treated guitars and provocateur shapeshifting.
With barely a pause for respite, the band goads the audience into surging loose-limbed response. The singer howls at the moon, while his counterpart with the one red eye and the antlers comes over all Lucifer Rising. Imagine Dark Magus period Miles jamming with The Silver Apples, fronted by Gabby Hayes of The Butthole Surfers. Not even close.
Championed by The Quietus, who has tipped the band for greater things, Snapped Ankles are clearly enjoying themselves. With a short tour to promote debut album Come Play The Trees, it’s worth catching them in their full Dadaist Komische majesty…
Snapped Ankles tour continues. Details here. Come Play The Trees is out now on The Leaf Label.
