Never heard of them. No idea what they do. So, obviously, I have to go look.
PLASTIC COWBOY BUILDER: Very odd trio from, I think, Edinburgh. A lady who scratches away on a violin, a minimalist drummer, and a guitarist/singer who appears to be able to do neither. His guitar keeps making lead-based crackling noises but I suspect nobody would have noticed if he hadn't tried to fix it. I believe this is what the kids call 'avant garde'
VIDEO: https://youtu.be/NXFibfG11pk https://www.instagram.com/cowboy.builder
HEXAKAIDECAGON: A sixteen-sided polygon, or an improv electronic duo from Glasgow. Either way, they don't show up. To be replaced by MILDRED HURTFUL, a middle-aged bloke who makes weird beat-boxing noises, cries like a baby, and tells rambling half stories with no punch-lines. Quite mad. FULL DISCLOSURE: I really don't understand this kind of stuff. I feel it's like watching someone having a breakdown, or a tantrum, and not knowing what to do. It makes me uncomfortable. But maybe that's the point.
AK'CHAMEL: Apocalyptic psychedelic tribal folk/jazz weirdness, or something. With masks. They play strange instruments and ordinary instruments in strange ways. One appears to have a tea-cosy on his head and a stick through his face. The drummer is an absolute machine. One of the instruments sounds like bees.
To be fair, it's all a great deal better than all of the above might suggest. The relentless driving rhythm section gives it a hefty flavour of krautrock and it's all, frankly, quite brilliant. Their 60 minutes goes by too quickly. 'No encores,' says the drummer at the end, 'it's too hot in all of this shit.' Which kinda ruins the mystique a bit...
