HEALTH, London Corsica Studios

May 7th 2009

OK, so maybe the main reason I’m here is so I can avoid the clash between HEALTH and Jeffrey Lewis at ATP tomorrow. But having said that, I really want to see how HEALTH’s twisted, otherwordly tribal noise translates to a live setting, especially as I’ve been informed that the band are much more intense live than on record.

The initial blast of noise, which eventually turns into the frenetic, pounding intro of opener ‘Crimewave’, certainly seems to justify this opinion. From then on the band are mesmerising in their sheer energy, complemented by the amazing force of the music, which is mostly crushingly dense, but at times more claustrophic, insistent, even paranoid. The latter category mostly belongs to the new songs played tonight, taken from the forthcoming second album Get Color. Brilliant first single ‘Die Slow’ and the other new numbers seem to take the warped sonic onslaught of the first album, and turn it into something more dancey and hypnotic, although still just as wonderfully weird.

But all material played tonight is equally compelling. It’s truly fascinating to watch the band wrench such ungodly, unusual noises out of their instruments, aided by their rows of effects pedals and the frantic, borderline insane, drumming. The venue adds greatly to the experience, with the industrial warehouse feel of the Corsica Studios seeming the perfet locale for the band’s perverse rhythms, which are often shrouded in smoke, blinding lights, or strobes.

But really the evening is all about the music and one gets the feeling HEALTH could start a twisted, discordant, sweaty dance party at a zoo, or perhaps a children’s birthday party, such is their intensity. Cheekily ending the set with the 30-second maelstrom that is ‘Girl Attorney’ is the perfect end to an exhilarating, if crazy, evening. Jeffrey Lewis has a lot to live up to.