Middlesbrough Music Live: ANKLES & Future of the Left.

For those of you who don't know about Middlesbrough Music Live, I'll fill you in a little. It's a completely free music festival based in the centre of Middlesbrough, which in the past has had acts such as: We Are Scientists, The Cooper Temple Clause, Bloc Party, Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster, The Martini Henry Rifles, Dartz!, Foals, Ash (as this years headliner) and many many more. It's a great festival for local acts and bands doing the gruelling festival circuit to get noticed. The two stand-outs for me this year were Future Of The Left and ANKLES.

ANKLES



ANKLES is an uppercase-loving trio from Hartlepool in North-East England. Their sound has been described in various places as "The Shins but lower." Which in a twisted comical way does somewhat describe their sound, better than I'll be able to anyway. Using two bassists and a drummer, they create complex soundscapes which you find yourself getting lost inside, as they slowly build up and cascade down. In the rare event they use vocals, they treat them just as another instrument and they don't take more limelight from the drumbeats or the bass riffs at all.

In their song Angles, they use fingerclicks as part of the percussion in the most brilliant way, you just want to join in like some crazed jazz fan. If you can cope with not singing along to a song and can appreciate great talent of creating good instrumental music, you should definately check them out.

ANKLES - Equestrian Theme
Angles and The Great Kick are available for download at.....
.....ANKLES Myspace



Future Of The Left


(Photo credit to Annette Lee / Three Pink Monkeys)

Future Of The Left is an "alternative rock supergroup" as stated on the infamous Wikipedia.
It consists of Jack Egglestone and Andy Falkous (both formerly of mclusky), Kelson Mathias (formerly of Jarcrew).

Checking their mics onstage before starting, they scream odd noises in various pitches, as the crowd, consisting mainly of kids in hoodies and hairdyes, look on bemused.
When they start, their sound is so raw and exciting compared to other bands I saw that day. I've never heard a keyboard sound so abrasive. Unfortunately, as soon as their first song starts half the crowd take it as a excuse to push and hit everyone within a 10 metre radius. As the first song draws to a close, the band ask people not to get so carried away and punching is definately not allowed. Summed up in bassist Mathias's words "This is supposed to be a gig, not fucking UFC". Luckily, this makes the situation a hell of a lot better and this progresses through the gig as the band use their wit to insult the wrong-do-ers in the crowd. Which leaves the rest of us to enjoy FOTL's awesome sound. Who would want to upset a band whose singer aggressively screams "There are no bold statements in my paradiddle" at the top of his voice? With the stuttering slower songs such as adeadenemyalwayssmellsgood to the 2 and a something minute scorchers like Small Bones Small Bodies, Future Of The Left have made some existing fans very happy and most definately drawn in some new ones too. As they finish with Falkous packing away Egglestone's drum kit to make him stop and then the bassist being carried offstage while still playing, it's clear to see that if you don't see these live, you're missing out on something special.


Future of the Left - Small Bones, Small Bodies
Future of the Left Myspace

- Paul