Live Review: The Creeping Bent Organisation presents Remake/Remodel, a live sensual extravaganza featuring Say Jansfield, Serf, Gareth Sager, Fake Eyelashes, Colditz live at Bastille Tavern Ballroom, Glasgow, Scotland , 18th November 2005

by anna battista

Basically, this should be a launch for the latest single by Future Pilot A.K.A., 'Eyes of Love', featuring guest vocals by Belle and Sebastian's Stuart Murdoch and Sarah Martin, but it's actually much more than that. Tonight's gig is also dedicated to the charity Children In Need, and - as Creeping Bent's Douglas MacIntyre reminds us - to Edwyn Collins.

The night opens with the Pastels DJing, before Colditz bring on stage their experimental and visionary soundclash of violin, cello, trumpet, keyboards and electronic samples. The Fake Eyelashes, that is Douglas MacIntyre on guitar and Katy McCullars on vocals, introduce us to their ethereal pop sound, and also play a cover of The Nectarine No. 9's '22 Blue' to delight us.

Gareth Sager's set is desperately short but caustic enough for our ears thanks to his ferocious guitar. The interval between Sager and the next band is courtesy of Future Pilot A.K.A. and, later, of Port Sulphur, who have reinvented themselves as DJs tonight. Serf's music is a mixture of angry and raw guitar, two cellos and deep vocals. It's a rather powerful symbiosis of sombre sounds with an incantatory power as their single 'Fiverounds' shows.

Say Jansfield bring a bit of colour to the venue: Jansfield (vocals and guitar), Maria 'Moon' (vocals, keyboard, percussion and samples), who's sporting for the occasion a pale blue wig, and Rob 'Neon' (drums, synth and percussion), might be dressed in white from head to toe, but they are definitely ready to take us on a trip through their colourful music. Their sound is a bit different from Transelement's - Jansfield's first band - yet it's not too far from it: indeed, it still features blips and noises, elements of electronic music and samples, but Say Jansfield sound like a more vocal-based project with irresistible melodies as their latest single 'The Lioness' or the track 'A Sad Past' - included in the recent Creeping Bent compilation "Popism" - prove.

Well-done once again to Creeping Bent then for presenting during the same gig a compendium of the best music around.

(Photographs: Colditz, Fake Eyelashes by Anna Battista)