THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILS
THE NOTWIST LIVE
(Free concert as part of the Ferrara Sotto le Stelle summer season)
If you sent a group of well read, world weary aliens to Earth, I imagine they’d come up with songs like The Notwist. Technologically sophisticated yet with a lyrical faux-naivety they offer a detached and slightly bemused perspective on humankind.
On record the band’s brand of melodic glitch-pop is cool and controlled with Markus Acher’s dispassionate voice sounding like a German incarnation of Kubrick’s ‘Hal’.
This precision is also evident on stage but the sound is far more expansive and is nothing short of a revelation.
Their delicate songs have a greater vitality and variety when performed live, blending techno, funk and punk elements with ease. The 90 minute set flows seamlessly with a constant pulse of sound allowing no awkward pauses between songs.
The band are doubtless conscious that they resemble cool academics so there’s no rock and roll posing. The exceptional sound system and subdued lighting mean that the focus is on the music more than personality. The beautiful outdoor setting alongside Ferrara’s Castello is enhanced by bathing the trees behind the stage in green or purple light.
Martin Gretschmann in the Eno role as laptop trickster looks like Garth from Wayne’s World. He waves a pair of white remote control devices at his console and presses some buttons - it doesn’t look much but the sound he generates is amazing.
The songs from Neon Golden generate the most applause; rightly so as the versions of ‘Pick Up The Phone’, ‘Pilot’ and , for the first encore, ‘One Of The Freaks’ + ‘Consequence’ are impeccable. Of the newer material ‘Gloomy Planets’ stood out as an instant classic with its electro-acoustic recorded version stepping up a gear to an impressive jam (captured in a rough manner here):
This brilliant show closes with the simplicity of ‘Boneless’ (with the “Now it’s time to say goodbye” lyric that also closes their recent album) - a reminder that for all the complex layers, the band’s sound is rooted in relatively simple sing based material.
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