Short Reviews [Bloodcog - 2024 - "Staged"]

Following on from two albums with different line-ups, Phil Hargreaves decided to take Bloodcog on the road, and what we have here is the result: 11 improvised songs, 55 minutes in length. What is interesting is that those in the audiences, and anyone playing this, may well be quite confused as to what is going on as the music is being treated as it is played so no-one quite knows what is going on (including the band). The line-up was Fran Bass (electric bass), Richard Harding (chapman stick), Phil Hargreaves (saxes/flute/FX), Richard Harrison (drums/objects) and Pete Smyth (analogue electronics), but with the Stick being basically two instruments there were six being played at the same time. Harrison was mixing using a laptop live on stage, the two Chapman Stick outputs were going through a pedalboard, the drums were augmented with electronics, the woodwinds were being altered while the bass also got some treatments time to time while Pete Smyth was playing a no-input mixer and a selection of cassette Walkmans and guitar pedals. The result is something which takes some serious listening to and eventually I realised the best thing to do was let the music take me on a very strange journey and stop worrying about how it was actually being produced. It feels almost as if the music is being recorded in a laboratory by people in white coats as opposed to sweaty musicians onstage, and it takes a lot of guts to stand up and perform music that no-one has ever heard before (including those playing it) and then also decide how to manipulate that in real time. The more I played it the more I understood it, and the more I understood it the more I enjoyed it, with the result being me feeling very envious of those people in Manchester and Liverpool who were able to see this developing in front of their very eyes and ears as it must have been quite an experience. This is not music for those who want everything to sound as if it has all come out of the same musical factory but is for those of us who want our musicians to be pushing the boundaries and take us on a journey which challenges our own sensibilities and barriers. Bloodcog are pushing through any preconceived ideas of what music should be like, and taking it on the road is truly exciting and that has all been captured in this set which is invigorating, RIO, improvised, electronic, created, Noise, avant garde, experimental and so much more. All at the same time.