Live review: The Lava Experiments

Friday 29 January
The 13th Note, Glasgow

“Has everyone got that Friday feeling?” A cry that usually accompanies some upbeat guitar pop. But tonight at the launch of The Lava Experiments’ new EP the focus is instead on three bands who put a new spin on shoegaze.

Glider open with a pounding drum, droning chords and Katherine MacLeod’s sweet voice. The effect is not at all unpleasant – soothing, almost. They follow this with a song that replaces the pounding with a more understated beat and a haunting vocal which sets it apart. The song ends on some jazzy, uptempo flute before drums crescendo to fill the Note’s basement.



While Glider’s music is heavy, it never descends into muddy or maudlin. You hear Sonic Youth at their most melodic, you hear My Bloody Valentine, although it does mean that the shorter songs take you aback. A sweet cover of Low’s 'Sunflowers' catches the ear and 'Star and Chain' carries on the theme, wringing guitars through some kind of effects pedal before the world comes crashing in. There is beauty in these downtempto pieces, but the band’s strength lies in those moments when frontman Colin Hamilton strums at his guitar so hard you’d think the strings – and his fingers – might break.

Laki Mera are tonight’s unknown quantity, mixing heady electronica with gorgeous pop star vocals from singer/synth queen Laura Donnelly. Their set mixes instrumental portions like the all-night bass beats in some sleazy underground club and dark, whispered passages that hint of unspeakable things. If Saint Etienne was Satan, perhaps.



And they’re not above the odd spot of guitar too, whether warped into a five-minute piece of thrashy live electronica or played acoustically, in set closer 'Reverberation'. Angelic vocals and understated keyboards make the contrast with what has gone before incredible – a range so breathtaking it’s like a mix CD in minor key.

Once the clutter of synths is removed, the stage looks almost empty for the three Lava Experiments. But they needn’t rely on much hardware to make some of the most beautiful and powerful noise to have ever graced the Note: guitar, bass, some samples and a drum kit battered to a membrane. Frontman Fraser Rowan doesn’t say much, but what he does almost doesn’t matter – his voice is another instrument to be bent to his will in the creation of his atmospheric soundscapes, echoing like a scream in a haunted crypt among the clatter of drums and guitars.

'Piecing Memories Together' is of course the reason we are here. The set pivots around its understated, haunting melody, and as the song builds itself into a powerful, desolate frenzy I swear my heart actually hurts. By the end of their allotted half hour, the audience are as emotionally battered as that snare.

Words and photos: Lisa-Marie Ferla



The Lava Experiments' 'Piecing Memories Together' EP - featuring remixes by Dan le Sac, Pumajaw and Betamax Warriors - is available now.

On the radar: The Lava Experiments

Play: The Release


Play: Piecing Memories Together


“We all have a unique musical fingerprint, and the reason I write the music I do is because it’s the type of music I want to hear.”

So says Fraser Rowan of Glasgow electronic three-piece The Lava Experiments. “Some choose to ignore it in favour of sounding like a specific genre or act. I write music to listen to it.”

And perfectionist Rowan has a tendency to listen to his music for “days on end, continually tweaking it and developing new versions”.

It’s a process mirrored in the development of his band since its inception as a solo project in 2005. Following the self-release of debut album Wavelength and some early live shows, Rowan added bass player Roddy Campbell to the mix. Securing the services of Alan Wond on drums at the tail end of 2008 completed the transformation from one-man bedroom project to fully-fledged live band, with Rory McGregor now on bass.

“Up until I caught UNKLE live at the ABC in 2007 on their War Stories tour, I was content to play laid-back electronic style soundscapes; just me and my guitar, my vocals and my laptop,” Rowan explains of the act’s evolution in sound. “That night at the ABC blew me away – those electronic pioneers were on stage with a band! They were brutal, heavy and irresistible.

“That was a life-changing moment – and why I decided to get a bass player and drummer on board.”

This month sees the release of 'Blackbody Vol. II' through Hanamuke. The second in what is intended to be a trilogy of EPs is a five-track slice of gorgeously cinematic electronica, reminiscent in places of Kraftwerk or a heavier Explosions in the Sky.

Opening track 'Piecing Memories Together' sets the scene with Rowan’s dreamy vocals and swirling synth building over delicate acoustic guitar and ambient drums. The vocals take a back seat on atmospheric 'Sun Flies', and 'River Shape' is an interlude of pure Sunday morning ambience. 'Ring to the Dark Place' and 'The Release' round the EP off in spectacular style, the latter a piece of dark, electronic shoegaze showing the versatility the additional band members have brought to the project.

“The structural style employed in our songs is the antithesis of the ‘intro, verse, chorus’ gubbins,” says Rowan. “Our tunes tend to start off quiet, gradual. Using repetition and introducing new parts from other instruments, each piece evolves – some further than others.

“This style was definitely borrowed from Loop and early Spiritualized. It has also resulted in comparisons to the likes of Explosions in the Sky and God Speed You Black Emperor and, although I don’t think we sound like them, I see where they come from.”

Rowan is proud to be a part of the Scottish music scene, describing it as “vibrant, varied and visceral. Fantastic and unparalleled too, but they don’t begin with V,” he quips. “We’ve had folks from across the world contacting us on MySpace wanting to know what’s in the water supply in Scotland as it’s producing such fantastic bands. The ones that make it are only the tip of the iceberg.

“In Glasgow in particular we are very lucky – every night of the week there is a variety of excellent bands playing in one of our fantastic small venues. It’s a privilege that you only realise when you are no longer here.”

Blackbody Vol. II is released on Monday, 31st August. The band will celebrate this second EP with a launch party at Nice n Sleazy, Glasgow on 4th September, and the final part of the trilogy is scheduled to follow next year.

Words: Lisa-Marie Ferla

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