Reviews
Strawberry Fair, Heavy Discipline
After a trip back to the reggae
tent for the Trojan Sound Crew's fine styles, I skipped across the fields'
numerous cow-pats to the east stage and caught The Kill Freeman Faculty.
Although I'm never one normally to enjoy the primal thrills of grungy metal (a
sphere solely inhabited by bald middle aged adolescents with questionable taste
in beards, and the ghost of John Peel), I'm gonna grudgingly have to admit that
they were actually pretty good. Don't take my reluctance as some kind of
inverted indie 'fuck it if its not cool' snobbery, far from it, I just don't
like metal pretty much full stop. Whilst it's always the last thing that
matters in a band, they were all 'competent musicians' and changed time
signatures in the right places without fucking up blah blah blah. Though
it sickens me to say it, they were probably better than all our teenage rock and
roll idols put together. But I'm sure I'll have to add that outburst to
the 'things I've regretted saying in the morning' list, and I've already got a
horrible taste in my mouth.
Cambridge Red Srtipe Band Comp
The Kill Freeman Faculty, who were fourth up, are an acquired taste for some but with a dub bassline, wild eyed screaming vocals and a guitar as jagged as a broken bottle they proved to have the freshest sound of the entire competition.
Cambridgebands.com CD Launch Party CEN
A host of local acts lined up to play at the Junction for the launch of the new Cambridgebands.com CD, showcasing the city's musical talent.
With an eclectic mix of folk, country, rock and dance in two rooms it was impossible to watch all the bands playing over the well organised four hour event but it was easy to stumble across some new musical gem.
The Shivers entertained a packed upstairs bar with some eccentric acoustic rock and folk guitarist Bailey dazzled with some breathtaking picking.
As the night drew towards its climax The Kill Freeman Faculty repeated their crowd-pleasing efforts at the band competition last month and doled out some of their trademark startlingly original crunching dub metal.
Lead singer Oli sounds more confident with each performance and his rage filled screams were enough to scare off the more faint hearted members of the audience.
Moe Foe juxtaposed Kill Freeman's bruising set with a tight funk-filled performance and did well to keep the Morcheeba fans happy.
CEN
The Kill Freeman Faculty seem to be everywhere you look on the Cambridge music scene at the moment.
After securing a worthy second place at the Cambridge Band Competition they last week stole the show at the Cambridgebands.com showcase at the Junction and are already signed up to play Strawberry Fair.
A lot of hard work and inspiration is paying off for the Cambridge group - although they admit that their vividly original dub metal is either loved or hated by their transfixed audiences.
But success in a rock band is something guitarist Jamie could only dream of a few years ago when scarlet fever and whooping cough left him deaf for 12 months.
"I had lots of operations and I was told that I wouldn't be able to sing in key or tune a guitar," he said.
"But that just made me want to go out and do it and I just threw myself into music.
"I listen back now to recordings of me singing at the time and it was terrible, I couldn't sing to save my life."
After teaching himself to play music again he eventually hooked up with drummer John, swaying dreadlocked bassist TK and lead screamer Oli (think of an angry six foot Mike Patton with a Pharaoh's beard and you're halfway there).
"Usually I come into the band practice with a riff and then John and TK rip it apart and find the parts of it they like," said Jamie.
"Some people are really into it and they catch on to our music straight away and there are other people who detest it - but I think it is better to cause a reaction than nothing at all."