REVIEW: REIGNS + DEEJ DHARIWAL AT BRISTOL CROFT (08/03/12)
Deej Dhariwal is one-third of the expansive post rock noise mongers ‘Thought Forms’, armed with one hell of a pedal board. As his set tonight begins, it appears to bare the self conscious brunt of solo performance; wavering in and out of beautifully bleak moments, beneath the looming pressure and unpredictability that inevitably comes with the construction of massive walls of sound on stage – with no band mates there to share the load. Nevertheless, any tentativeness is forced to give way to the sonic sandstorm of Egyptian scales gradually conjured up by Deej into a mesmerizing flurry of noise. Switching between keyboard and guitar prevents the drone-like quality of his music from becoming monotonous; and just as your ear drums start to quiver, his set closes at its peak, with tape-player-to-pick up feedback and a raw delivery of vocals without a microphone.
There is always something disheartening from the very beginning of a live performance when you realize that one of the band members is an Apple Mac. In the case of Reigns, the laptop is their drummer, and serves its purpose well of keeping things painfully tight, perfect, and boring throughout their set. Overly bright keyboards dominate their post-folk meanderings, which lead to the occasional lush passage of chorus, before once again giving way to verses and bridges which lie on the underwhelming side of twee. The soft, almost spoken, vocals come across as half arsed rather than distant and sentimental; injecting little feeling into what can only be summarized as a restrained, lackluster performance to a metronome.
Words: Serena Cherry
