Hallogallo play NEU! set at ATP's In Between Days

All Tomorrows Parties - In Between Days 2010 review

By Jason Wood | Published: Tue 14th Dec 2010

All Tomorrows Parties - In Between Days 2010

Monday 6th to Thursday 9th December 2010
Butlins Resort, Minehead, Somerset, TA24 5SH, England MAP
£100 per person in 4 berth self-catering only

In Between Days is designed for those attending both weekend events (GY!BE and Belle & Sebastian ATP's) who might wish to stay on, useful if you're coming from distance I guess, as many folks do. Bands performed in the evening, usually four or five. Day entertainment in the form of cinema, book club, local steam train trip amongst other things was also on the programme of events. It was also possible to attend for single days or the week alone.

The curators this time were Amos, a design company set up by James Jarvis, Sofia Prantera and Russell Waterman. The former designs the soft vinyl toy collectables that are often to be seen on sale at ATP events and elsewhere e.g. Silas Martin, Yod and Kind Ken characters. Jarvis and Waterman have also produced children's comic book Vortigern's Machine, together with its own figurine collection.

Glammed-up 70's style, New Yorkers White Hills opened musical proceedings Monday evening, and continued the psychedelic-shoegaze-drone sound also prevalent at the GY!BE weekend. Their likening to Hawkwind is justified; intense, heavy guitar and LOUD once more. They had also performed with Oneida over the weekend, a performance I now regretted not seeing more of.

Cleveland's complex ambient-synth band Emeralds were next up, more drone with hypnotic, melodic guitar set over ambient keyboards. Cave play a very decent drone/psychedelic/Krautrock set with a similar feel also to the Space Rock of tonight's openers White Hills.

Ulrich Schnauss has strong Shoegaze influences (MBV, Slowdive, Chapterhouse) that reflect in his music, mixing keyboards and ambient sounds from his laptop. Not the kind of performance I would normally enjoy, though the electronic interpretation of Shoegaze was actually quite enjoyable.

Hallogallo 2010 are a collaboration of Michael Rother (Spirits of Sound, NEU!, Harmonia, Kraftwerk), Steve Shelley (Sonic Youth), and Aaron Mullan (Tall Firs). Together they played a great set of Rother's previous material with NEU!; the highly underrated, influential Krautrock band of the 70's. The frontman is a natural multi-instrumentalist, switching between guitars and keyboards tonight, just a narrow part of his repertoire. Shelley was as solid as ever on drums, and there's a great connection between the three as they play. "This is my first time playing Minehead" says a well-travelled Rother; we take this to be ironic.

review by: Jason Wood

photos by: Jason Wood