Aesthetic Perfection/Uberbyte/Hybrid 6/Surgyn

The Talking Heads, Southampton

Tonight saw me back at Talking Heads for another evening of electronic based aggression, this time in the form of Los Angeles group Aesthetic Perfection. However, kicking the evening off is Scotlands very own Surgyn.

This duo jumped straight in with an electronic sound that had a very strong retro feel to it, although off set with some very up to date attitude. At times I thought I could here traces of Human League, ala Travelogue. They expertly fused modern day electro/EBM with an old school sound, with visual look almost reminiscent to Steve Strange.

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For their second track the duo swapped their roles, and the sound seemed harsher, reminiscent to Nekromantic, and a harsher Soft Cell (possibly crossed with PIL). By their fourth track the audience had grown, and with aggressive overtones as the lyric were at times spat out, coupled with the hard beat they almost seemed to hark back to early electro industrial. The crowd were certainly into their sound, and enjoyed their set. There could be promise in these guys…

Next up were Hybrid six, a local Southampton 4 piece, who had a great blend of guitar, synth, and samples. As their second track, Anger, picked up the pace to the audiences pleasure.

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The vocals seemed a little muted compared to their recorded material which was a shame. However, as the set progressed they got tighter, and the audience started getting into the set. Although Madam Mayhems vocals seemed a little drowned out by the music. Their track “Toy” started with the sound of a wind up you box that immediately went into an EBM beat and got the audience moving. Overall they had an interesting sound that shows promise.

Their set closed with “Pretty Vacant” by the Sex Pistols which was enjoyed by the audience. Certainly an interesting choice when played with a synth back drop and distorted guitars, not everyone’s choice, but a definite crowd pleaser for those down the front.

Next we have Uberbyte, and for me, this is one band I have wanted to see for a little while. They opened with the first track I had ever heard by them “Stand Up (for Uberbyte)”, which seemed very fitting, and the audience immediately exploded. This group produce a fast paced alternative to electronic dance music, with harsh aggressive overtones, and with the new album, NFY, more war references.
in the form of “Hell Alamein”, and “Spion Kop”.

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“Stand Up” was followed by directly by “Spion Kop” without giving the audience time to take a breath, provoking great crowd interaction and response. Not to mention what seemed like an unlimited energy supply from Uberman.

Despite being hardcore industrial, I am fairly sure, and potential embarrassed to pick up on at least one Scooter reference, not to mention a KLF reference (who doesn’t like the KLF eh?).

Moving into “135335”, from “[sic]”, Ubergirls vocals spoke out the numbers perfectly! (I had previously assumed they were sampled. Bad me.)

Their set ended with what can only be described as a party number, “Money Shot”. The audience were having a great time, they were joined on stage by friends, Surgyn, and others – simply put, everyone was having fun. They track climaxed with two hand held glitter canons being fired. (and many thansk to the nice girl on the merch stall)

At 21:45 Asthetic Perfection take to the stage and plunging straight into their set, the crowd seemed to be initially stunned but loved it. This is followed by “Pale”, and “the Great Depresion”, from the second album “A Violent Emotion”.

With a few heckles for the vocals to be turned up, there were no complaints and plenty cheers from each track. Although, not the party atmosphere of Uberbyte, the energy was maintained, and added to, and the crowd loved every second of the performance. With a great blend of tracks from “A Violent Emotion”, and the more recent “All Beauty Destroyed”.

With only the simplest of stage set-ups, a couple of site light frames to hold the strobe lights, Dan made full use of the space available, make sure that everyone down the front got the brunt of his aggression. The set ended with “The Great Depression”, leaving the crowd chanting for more.