W-from Woodentops to Worm

Last Friday night I went to the Queen Elizabeth Hall on London's Southbank to see a friend of mine, Ed Lovechocolate, playing in his circuit bending electro-eclecto band Worm. Circuit bending, in case you didn't know, is a radical way of making music from sounds taken from the circuit boards of Speak and Spell machines and other such bedrocks of modern music as Casio keyboards. Apparently, once these circuits are reassembled in alien bodies, you're never quite sure what noises are going to come out of them: could be something that sounds like white noise, could be a spooky voice, could be the sound, of, well, a circuit being bent. Whatever it is though it's very interesting and atmospheric especially when teamed with a trombone, a sax player, a bass player and a drummer playing a drum machine with his hands rather than sticks. At times it felt like you were grooving along a New York waterfront with a sea fret muffling the distant, hub and thrum of the city while the calls of strange anonymous creatures and fog horns occasionally pierce the gathering river-mist. At others you could have been in a basement in 1970s Berlin with Krautrock bands such as Neu rehearsing next door.
There is no guitar or (human) vocals in tonight's incarnation of Worm, but who knows next time there could be; that's the beauty of this outfit they play only by their own rules. If you're looking for something unpredictable, individual, ambient yet cutting edge, jazzy tinged, electro but occasionally funky, then check 'em out. They'll be playing somewhere near you soon.
Afterwards, thanks to the largesse of said Mr Chocolate, who surprised us with free tickets, Nicky and I toddled off a few yards toward the river where we witnessed the return of The Woodentops.
Now anyone over thirty may remember The Woodentops from the mid-eighties when as a five piece led by the diminutive but hugely charismatic Rolo McGinty, they had a certain amount of indie chart success with their debut album Giant and singles such as Well,Well,Well, Love Affair With Everyday Living, and Good Thing. Thirtysomethings may also recall that after the ill-received follow up album Woodenfoot Cops on the Highway, The 'Tops faded from view somewhat.
But now they're back with three fifths of the original line-up of McGinty, Frank De Freitas Bass), Simon Mawby (lead guitar) plus new drummer Paul Ashby and new keyboardist Aine O'Keeffe,and more of that million-mph, but relentlessly melodic, indie-rush and tumble, that once had them christened by me, at least, as 'The fastest band in the West'.
So what did we get for our money (yeah I know we got free tickets but phrases should be regularly coined otherwise they'll die)? Well quite a lot actually. Accesorized to the crystal-meth chord work, raging rhythms (Paul Ashby, how do you do it? Are you in fact bionic?) and Rolo's plaintive vocals we get a wall of sound that approaches and eventually surpasses anything that that ol' jail bird Phil Spector could've mustered up even in his hayday. In amongst the build and crescendo Mawby spat out rippling lead lines as McGinty riffed righteously and joyfully over O'Keefe's inventive, po-going, keyboards. Mixing new with equal amounts of old the set list satisfied past appetites while making the mouth water for what's to come.
All in all a fantastic gig. If you get the chance to see the 'tops take it. You won't regret it even though your ears might be ringing for a few hours afterwards.