Field Music – Newcastle Cluny

Field Music (Measure)

November 27/28, 2009

It’s just gone midnight. I’ve been home from the last night of Field Music’s two-night residency at one of Newcastle’s finest venues, The Cluny for about five minutes. I’m writing this whilst still buzzing from post gig enthusiasm, why? Well, I think that might be the only way I can convey in words just how special these nights were. In fact my conclusion from the two nights is this: Field Music are the Best. Band. In. The. UK. Now that is out the way, let’s get on with the actual review.

How to start a review of two such near musical perfect nights then? Well let’s get the support bands out the way first. Opening the first night is Nathalie Stern. Onstage on her own, she overcomes technical difficulties to deliver a hypnotic, haunting set of electro tinged, chamber pop. The highlight comes from a sort of a cappella number, for which she records her own voice to use a beat to sing over.

If Nathalie Stern is eccentric, then second night support act, Freeze Puppy, is just plain mental. The project of Tom Wilson, the majority of his backing band is played through an mp3 player hooked up to the sound system. This gives him the freedom to sing, play guitar and play, erm, toy saxophone. Travelling all the way from Southampton just for tonight, his set is very experimental, almost child-like and bloody fantastic.

With six albums of material to choose from, it is no surprise that the main act sound so diverse and engaging. However, it isn’t until you watch them blast through the opening four songs of the set featuring tracks from the first two Field Music albums, that you realise the true brilliance, and dare I say it, genius of this band. Most groups would kill for hooks like those in ‘A House Is Not A Home’, and for the band to casually throw it out so early is as a true testament to the quality of their song writing.

Although, in the last three years, the brothers Brewis never really took a break from working with each other, there is still the element of the new line-up, and how that would affect the band’s dynamic. On the basis of these two nights, Field Music sound as tight as ever.  While leaving the venue after these gigs, the comment I hear most is “they just keep getting better” – and it’s true. For a band still playing their first gigs with a new line up, that is impressive.

The new line up gives added depth and more complexity to the already complicated tracks. The presence of Ian Black and Kev Dosdale really adds extra layers and helps fill the songs. Of course, it’s in the tracks from the new album in which you notice them most. From the magnificent anthem for the lazy and fed up ‘Them That Do Nothing’, a very early contender for track of next year, to the intricate workings of ‘Clear Water’ a track that demonstrates the clear lack of drum solos in modern music to the rawer sounding riffs of recent free download ‘Each Time Is A New Time.’ These new songs suggest an (even) more complex, and darker sound.

But their influence is still heavy in the oldies. ‘Tell Me Keep Me’ sounds dirtier, heavier and that little bit grittier. The School Of Language songs sound fuller, and more complete with the full band. It truly is like they’ve never been away. One of the highlights of both nights is the more tender ‘It’s Not The Only Way To Feel Happy’, in which sections of the crowd join in the a capella “ba ba bas”. There is so much more I could write about, like the way they breeze through the set, making these intricate and complex songs look so easy or David’s declaration of “It’s rock o’clock”, but I just don’t have enough words. Five songs into the first night’s set, David Brewis declares: “We were worried you wouldn’t turn up.” We wouldn’t have missed these nights for the world.

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