REVIEW - ATOM TREE & MACHINES IN HEAVEN, CCA 19 OCTOBER 2013

As part of Document the International Human Rights Film Festival, Atom Tree and Machines In Heaven played a free show at the CCA on Sauchiehall Street last night. It was my first time seeing both bands live and they both played outstanding sets.

Atom Tree opened up and instantly caught the imagination. There's genuinely something special about this band and I'm convinced that they're going to be huge. Sometimes electronic music doesn't translate to the live arena and can sound a bit flat however Atom Tree showed what can be done and they did it bloody well. The set included a full play of recently released Tide of Thorns ep (review here) including a glorious Desired Effects with Fergus from Discopolis on vocals. My personal favourite PS sounded amazing live too.

Atom Tree live at CCA 19 October 2013

As the people I was texting and emailing post gig will attest, I was blown away by this set. It's hard to perhaps pin down comparisons or obvious influences to give you an idea of the Atom Tree sound as I hear so many different elements at play. My notes from Saturday night mention Radiohead's Kid A at several points and that's not a bad comparison. The atmospheric electronics certainly do bring that album to mind but that's really only part of the story. My best advice would be to check them out yourself as you will not be disappointed. Next up for them is a support with Ghostpoet at the CCA on 22 October, a gig at Cookies in Berlin on 30 November and a showcase show at Catch in London on 4 October .

Blog favourites Machines In Heaven were next up. I've contrived to miss most of their recent shows so it was great to finally get a chance to seem them live. The band gave us a 6 song set containing the three tracks from the Glasgow Jihad ep (links and review here ) and three others including a fantastic (and fantastically named) Parliament Is Made of Rice Paper

Machines In Heaven live CCA 19 October 2013

I've go on and on about Machines In Heaven before and having seen the live show I'm going to keep going on until everyone listens. As with Atom Tree the songs really work live and have an extra punch to them. the set closing bordersbreakdown was a perfect example of that. It's an ambitious track which sounds great on the ep and happily the band perform an excellent version live which seems to have a bit more kick to it. Highly recommended. The band are currently busy remixing for a few people and have just finished their debut album. There are also more gigs in the pipeline which I'll keep you informed about.

Overall then it was a great gig. It's so refreshing to see such vibrant live electronic scene and especially pleasing personally when two bands I keep banging on about sound so good. Thanks to Shaun, Graham, Greg, Connor and Clair for chatting on Saturday - look forward to doing it all again soon.

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