Thursday 20/10/05 Engineers, Magnet, Vandal In Berlin @ The Barfly, Liverpool

"It’s okay… Don’t stand up…"  Vandal In Berlin’s Jon shares a joke with the seated Barfly audience after surveying the situation on this cold Thursday night. The crowd don’t really know what to make of them and Vandal In Berlin are in their element. Twisting the sound of vintage synthesizers against the stuttering fury of Aphex Twin style beat clickerry they have achieved a sound akin to an old Spectrum computer game loading (younger readers look them up). Result. The only criticism you could level at Vandal In Berlin is their approach to sampling, they get a loop and roll with it, no breaks, no changes and unfortunately, no surprises.

This leads onto Magnet… Take all the best bits from golden age Travis, Starsailor and Coldplay... Roll it into a ball... Then kick it as far away as you possibly can and the sub standard indie-mush you are left with are Magnet. Apparently they have an album out called ‘The Tourniquet’, on tonight’s evidence avoid it like Bird Flu.

Fortunately things get cranked up all the way to eleven for Engineers. Arriving onstage to the sound of all out psychedelic war, they saunter across the stage with a confidence that has been lacking from their support acts tonight. Opening with album highlight ‘One In Seven’ they rawk with the force of twenty Storm In Heaven era Verves. Singer Simon Phipps hushed tones carve beautiful melodies from the cacophony that engulfs the stage. The band don’t seem that impressed with him it would seem, every time he tries to regale the crowd with an amusing (nearly) rock star anecdote they proceed to break into the next choon. In this particular case though they smash into single ‘Come In Out Of The Rain’ so we forgive them every one. People have got themselves into a bit of a tiz with the album, after it was compared to Lazer Guided Melodies, The Three EP’s and yes you guessed it A Storm In Heaven. The doubters circled in like vultures and were promptly shot down from the sky, by a guitar solo maaaaaaaaaaaan… 

The only fault you could find with Engineers tonight was the muddy sound, Simon’s voice every now and again was lost amongst the wall of sound and layers of triphead destroying awesome noise. This is a minor gripe though as for nearly an hour Engineers have taken us to the moon and back in a space ship constructed almost entirely from white noise and subtle, graceful melody. Closing with the epic ‘A Given Right’ Engineers leave the stage to rapturous applause and the people here know they’ve seen something special. Fantastic.