Cog Wheel Dogs and Elapse O at the Port Mahon 10/02/08

Another trip to the Port is another musical discovery and another notable mark of the Oxford music scene. I evidently don't get out much. I also tend to be very late for things and didn't make too much of an exception for the evening. After missing the first two or three bands I arrived just in time to watch the last two, and thank christ I made it.

It's becoming harder and harder to get a feel for exactly what the "Oxford sound" consists of. A city with such variation in people will expectantly result in wide variation of style. All the tastes, interests and influences mix together like some crazy cocktail, spiked with drugs of course. Maybe that's just me. Generally, due to the amount of academia as well as the large quantity of students, theres no shortage of intellectual or provocative music. The power of choice, such a modern illusion...
In this sense, both bands were incredibly different. It was melody against texture, mood against mood and yet, somehow, they complimented each other. Cogwheel Dogs, an acoustic duo with a rough edge were first on the little paper list that hung in the doorway. Their songs, a combination of mornful blues and grunge was offset by the expressive cello unafraid of screaming and fucking with the tension. His experimentation of the instrument was refreshing when you think of how groups like Kings of Convenience use it. To them, it adds only accompaniment, a typical "hint of string". To CWD, it's a prominant voice, even competing with the heartbreaking plead of the singer. There is almost narrative or journey to the songs, like two characters telling a story. Throughout their set you could cut the audience atmosphere with a chainsaw. You could also cut the audience with that same chainsaw but that's just sick, amusingly off topic however. All eyes and ears were fixated on the delicate, soulful sound. I felt wounded somehow.

As if that wasn't enough, as if being cut open didn't affect me at all, on stroll Elapse O to initiate a final, noisier beating. Searing and intense, it was an overpowering set spaced out by the click of the pedal at the end of each track. Silence becomes haunting when they stop. My sympathies for the bass, it was dragged to it's absolute limits. A drone of pusling pro-tooled drums underneath, apocalyptic shouting over the top, all create a scraping mesh of texture leaving you feeling abused and completely stunned. Like any good gig, you feel you've been through something.
An awesome night and my critical side feels almost guilty admiting it. At the moment at least, the Port Mahon can do no wrong.