Xeno & Oaklander, Magic Pockets – The Joinery, 1st June

Inspired by the likes of the largely unknown first wave of continental European minimal electronic bands of the early 80’s (Absolute Body Control, Twilight Ritual, Martin Dupont, Snowy Red), the seminal early industrial bands, as well as the emphemeral, psychedelic atmospheres of the British shoegaze bands of the 1990s, Xeno and Oaklander perform using entirely analogue synthesizers, sequencers, and drum machines to produce a highly-crafted, complex of form of moody, electronic pop music that is simultaneously romantically melancholic and affirmatively aggresive. Uptempo, cold, distant, echo-laden electronic landscapes provide a spacious, melancholic backdrop for Miss Liz’s complex ephemeral lyrical presence.

Their entirely live approach to both performance and recording, unmediated by the computer or any prerecorded playback interference, presents a new optimistic radical paradigm shift for electronic music in which the analogue synthesizer functions entirely anew as a folk instrument of humanist resistance to a ‘soft synth’ world being ‘clicked and dragged’ into oblivion.