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Bombay Monkey - The Kentish Green Tea Machine, Gazastock 2006
Gazastock is a small festival in Kent that I had been invited play at under my production alias of Dialog, at the Kentish Green Tea Machine tent.On arrival, I strolled around with my wife to see what was on offer. The main stage was more traditional bands sort of fair & had a bit of pub rock vibe. Poking my head into the smaller Kentish Green Tea Machine Tent I was greeted with the site of décor, PC’s being rigged up to perform visuals, mirror balls being set up………ah ha (!) this looked a promising place to hang out for the weekend. The sound system was being run by Lo-Tek.
For those of you who don’t know, Lo-Tek are a small label/studio based in Tunbridge Wells. The owners of the label also have a production alias of Bombay Monkey, who may be known to some readers of the Big Chill website. For the record I’m a big fan of Bombay Monkey, but didn’t really know any of the other acts on their label. This was rectified, as over the weekend I was rewarded with 3 great sets.
Sound Sanctuary headlined on Friday night, after my warm up set. They are a 4 piece with a very English pastoral sound. Accoustic guitars, shimmering clean lead guitar & some gorgeous 3 part vocal harmonies. Think Nick Drake meets Echo & the Bunnymen, with maybe a dash of the Kings of Convienience. They delivered an involving, atmospheric set to a full tent. Post gig research shows they have earnt plays by Nick Luscombe.
Saturday night was the turn of label newbies Origami Dinosaur to step forward. They are one of the most fun bands I have seen in a while. Their 60’s style psychedelic vocals & guitar over more modern sounding beats is refreshing. Helen plays a mean guitar with a great blues feel, with a dash of funk & Hendrix style clean licks, which never descends into pub rock. She duets with Andy on vocals & create some really trippy sounding harmonies. Their songs are really catchy & the crowd were baying for an encore. So when the band reprised “There’s something about the funk”, the crowd joined in, singing a tune they’d only for the first time earlier in the set!
Bombay Monkey closed proceedings with an audio-visual set. They are an electronic outfit who play from beats & samples, so having the visuals really enhanced their stage presence. Their quirky brand of instrumental hip-hop was accompanied by animations of Monkeys falling into Time Tunnels, images of world war 3, scenes from Flash Gordon (to the sound of honky tonk style piano music), old black & white films, space travel & some Gerry Anderson puppets for good measure. It was an A/V set that was fun & moody, much like Bombay Monkey themselves. The show bodes well for the new EP.
For those into the “eclectic” Big Chill approach to music, Lo-Tek has very 3 interesting bands on offer, all completely different from each other. Hopefully there will be some more gigs from the label soon.
Check out the myspace links for some tracks.
Bombay Monkey Myspace
Sound Sanctuary Myspace
Origamidinosaur Myspace
Lotek Records Myspace
Lotek Website
Dialog Music Myspace
Written: 12th Jul, 06
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