Live Review: Clark - Coniston Lane

It is well into the evening before Brisbane's Brainbeau take to the stage, however, the attendance is still thin enough to warrant a slight bit of concern. The two-piece don't seem the least bit disheartened by the reclusive attendees whom haunt the margins, and rather exert a playful enthusiasm whilst performing their self professed “new-new-wave-intelligent-dance with a freak-folk-electro-romantic-jazz-punk twist?” style of music. With an effectual display of mutating textural-masses projected above, Brainbeau's presence is heightened and their songs succeed beyond that of their recorded offerings to date.

Unfortunately it is a sad reality that Brisbane is all too often bypassed by artists of this ilk, and thus it is of utmost importance that our city affirms its support through attendance on these rare occasions; so it comes as a great relief to see a healthily populated dancefloor by the time Clark commences his set. Upon commencement the room is saturated by a rather immense volume of cavorting beats and melodies. After flying high for a good few minutes, the volume is regulated to a less harmful detonation, and the soundscape sinks into the murky depths of an aquatic-like terrain. The excellent visual display utilises loops of footage which often reflect the palette of recent album Iradelphic's cover art and project ominous visions of obscure prophesies. Shifting between laptop and Moog, he forges through an eclectic mix of his music, and rarely exploits his more familiar material as the crutch to prop the performance upon. When he does mine his own back catalogue he positions it so far out of context that it is simply born anew in a fresh wonderment of surroundings. The live arena further illuminates Clark's spellbinding ability to be able to navigate somewhat dark, and often oppressive, terrains whilst simultaneously summoning an aura of positivity and optimism. Perhaps this is due in most part to a delightful use of melody, which often acts to permeate the oppressive mist with a gleaming ray of light and elevate the dancefloor toward momentary states of euphoria. The evening's encore is host to yet another remarkable display of audio-visual synchronicity, and by the point of its closure it certainly seems that Brisbane has been rewarded for the long wait. Now hopefully more will follow.