Live Review: Jakob, Hazards Of Swimming Naked

Hazards of Swimming Naked’s setlist will be familiar to fans, still drawing heavily on 2009’s Our Lines Are Down as it does, despite an anticipated new album looming on the horizon.

Still, the band is tighter than they’ve ever been, and even the most complex interplay of instruments sounds almost album quality. Perhaps because of the dominant trebles in the mix, the music is delicate tonight, almost gentle. It’s an engaging and different experience, and makes it feel like seeing the band afresh. The new single, Waiting For 5120, has been around in one form or another for some time now, but the final version is outstanding: efficient and intricate and making for an exciting teaser of what’s to come.

It’s been a long wait for fans of Jakob. Sines is their first album in eight years and while they’ve been over the pond once or twice in support slots, it’s been almost that long since there was a headline tour on our shores. Perhaps in acknowledgment of that, the set spans the band’s four releases, stretching back to 2001’s Subsets Of Sets.  It’s a testament to the band’s back catalogue (as well as the relatively static nature of the genre) that even the earliest tracks sound fresh, and the show feels entirely coherent, a strong and clear creative impulse tying it all together.

Where Hazards were delicate, Jakob is intense. Opener, Malachite builds slowly, gently, but when the full force of the track unleashes, it’s with a physical force that barely relents for the rest of the night. It’s not that the music is constantly heavy. Jakob have always excelled at the quiet-loud interplay of post-rock, but tonight even the quietest moments resonate with threat. Magna Carta is the highlight of the new material, as close as Jakob get to catchy, with a hopeful melody that floats out above the tribal drum-beats and roiling bass.

It seems like it hasn’t been a great day for the band. In a rare moment of audience interaction (this is, after all, post-rock), bassist Maurice Beckett comments: “You know those days where shit is fucked? Today was one of those.” But the show must go on, and Jakob have pushed through to deliver a set that delivers on their impressive reputation. Ageena is perfect as the show’s peak – chaos controlled, barely – and as The Collar Sets Well fades out, the crowd slowly filters out, sated but eager for a swifter return next time.