Three guys in their early twenties who’ve been sporting luminous earphones throughout the evening take to the stage, which isn’t a stage at all to be fair, just one end of the tiny Bar Bloc+ in Glasgow’s Bath Street. This is The Physics House Band from Brighton.
The small mezzanine space quickly fills up and people take to standing on chairs and benches to get a look. Backed by a black and white film projection they launch in to their first track. It’s instantly apparent how technically gifted this trio are as more bass notes per second than should be possible (Adam Hutchison) fly through the PA. The keyboard player (Sam Organ) effortlessly flits between Moog, numerous keyboards as well as guitar, and the drums (Dave Morgan) are fast and ferocious and unpredictable. Their music is instrumental but with so much going on it’s difficult to miss vocals. They are incredibly tight and given the speed of playing this is all the more impressive in this live setting and as they fly through their recent EP Horizons/ Rapture it’s clear they are completely wrapped up in the music and having as much fun playing as we are watching. The projections change to loops of dinosaur animations and black and white op-art all adding to the vibe.
It’s hard to tell where one track ends and the next begins as the band take you on a psychedelic journey through a plethora of genres including math-rock, prog, metal and even jazz. Comparisons could be as varied as Fugazi, Yes, Air, Three Trapped Tigers, The Mars Volta, The Doors and there’s definitely many more. That said, everything they play tonight has their own slant. The band said this was their first time in Glasgow and they were impressed. Adam even joking that their first experience of Glasgow was “Getting our arses kicked by two other bands”, before playing a song he said was about love, Abraxical Solapse.
Highlight of the set was Titan with its spellbinding keyboard arpeggios, which they saved for last and also closes their EP. For a band this early in their career to be this good can only bode well for the future, and I look forward to seeing what they do next.
www.thephysicshouseband.tumblr.com
