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Tochka Club, Moscow, Russia
27th March 2010
Project Pitchfork, Tamtrum, Solitary Experiments, Altera Forma

On 27th of March, all lovers of electronic music got an opportunity to see four different formations on one stage presenting the programs interesting enough to please even the most sophisticated audience. Unfortunately, at the beginning the quantity of people inside was dreadfully small but then the crowd in the venue was gradually getting bigger nevertheless the musicians got rather warm welcome.


Altera Forma

The first band of the evening was Moscow formation ALTERA FORMA. It was founded in 2002 and in two years released the first eponymous album. The project already performed numerous concerts and gained fans thanks to its musical experiments. ALTERA FORMA is Alexei Mostiev (music, vocals), Sasha Kulagin (keyboards), Sergey Bazin (session drums). http://www.myspace.com/alteraforma

Music & Performance
That day the opening act had to face with a near-empty hall but still played the gig to the end with calm. Actually the set was too short to get any more or less objective idea about the band’s music in general but judging by the part I managed to listen it was quite good and qualitative. The vocalist closed his eyes and completely sank into the performance so he could possibly sing even if the venue was absolutely empty and that is definitely a plus for him. As for the songs themselves they were mostly peaceful and measured especially comparing to what came next. The melodies were modestly fading away not providing time to fully assess them. So the music itself was good but not powerful to warm up the audience and the process starts only with the appearance of German guests SOLITARY EXPERIMENTS.

Rating
Music: 6
Performance: 4
Sound: 7
Light: 7
Total: 5.7 / 10




Solitary Experiments

The band began in 1994 as a project of Dennis Schober and Michael Thielemann and later the line-up was extended with the addition of keyboard player Steve Graeber. Since 1999 SOLITARY EXPERIMENTS signed with Maschinewelt and released the debut album ‘Final Approach’. Later on, the band changed the label and the first album that appeared on Out of Line became ‘Advance into Unknown’. Then releases came one after the other including the latest work ‘In the Eye of the Beholder’ recorded in 2009. SOLITARY EXPERIMENTS is Dennis Schober (vocals), Michael Thielemann (keyboards), Steve Graeber (keyboards) and Frank Glassl (live e-drums). http://www.solitaryexperiments.de/ / http://www.myspace.com/solitaryexperiments



Music & Performance
SOLITARY EXPERIMENTS quickly put bored audience into motion: clean and powerful vocals and extremely danceable music really produced a strong impression. All the members of the band wearing red shirts and black ties were ready to play an interesting concert which started with the song from ‘In the Eye of the Beholder’ entitled ‘Words of Wisdom’. Actually, it should be expected that the setlist mostly consisted of the tracks from that album yet there were several pleasant surprises like ‘Homesick’ or ‘Watching over You’. And of course the last composition ‘Seele Bricht’ aroused a wild reaction of the fans. Besides the combination of old and new songs could interest those who listened to the band for the first time.



The vocalist who was mainly the only one to create somewhat bustle was running between two keyboard players that stood almost still on the both sides of the stage. The other person who impressed with his cheerful performance was the drummer. Thus the set flew by rather fast and after a short change-over there appeared TAMTRUM so long awaited by the fans.

Setlist
01. Words of Wisdom
02. Road to Horizon
03. Pale Candle Light
04. Immortal
05. Déjà Vu
06. Homesick
07. The Dark inside Me
08. Delight
09. Watching over You
10. Rise and Fall
11. Point of View
12. Seele bricht

Rating
Music: 9
Performance: 8
Sound: 10
Light: 8
Total: 8.6 / 10




Tamtrum

In the music, French band TAMTRUM blends some electro-industrial elements and EBM with aggressive drum beats and not too pretentious lyrics so sometimes its style is also described as electro-punk. Despite the regular releases of new albums the formation gained popularity thanks to its live shows. Nevertheless TAMTRUM’s newest work came out last year and even consists of two somewhat different parts. TAMTRUM is Benoit XVI (vocals), Sylvicious (drums) and Casanova (keyboards). http://www.myspace.com/tamtrum



Music & Performance
As I already said, the appearance of the guys from TAMTRUM made the fans of the band rejoice and all those who wanted to see that famous show weren’t disappointed because it was a show indeed. All the musicians did their best to heat up the audience and didn’t forget to pretend being bad. Moscow fans got an opportunity to see the new keyboard player called Casanova and it should be said that he performed rather well and seemed to be enjoying the process. Concerning the songs most of them I listened to for the first time and that’s why I almost didn’t notice when one track ended and the other began. So the music turned out to be one energetic stream which made the whole crowd to move, jump and clap their hands.



The setlist consisted of the songs from the new album such as ‘Fuck You I’m Drunk’, ‘Zero Killed’ and for example ‘Milky Boy’ which was played as an encore. And of course there weren’t forgotten old proven hits like ‘Abort the Pope’ and ‘My Fall’ that was introduced as a slow composition but I’m still not sure the “slow” is the right word anyway. The band couldn’t get by without some slight striptease and also vodka, champagne and a strange black liquid in which the drummer was abundantly smeared with. The vocalist was rushing on the stage as a hurricane so it was really hard to watch him. Well, as a result the audience didn’t want to let TAMTRUM go without an encore. And then the change-over was rather long but finally the headliner Project Pitchfork came to the crowd.

Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 9
Sound: 8
Light: 8
Total: 8.3 / 10




Project Pitchfork

Well, PROJECT PITCHFORK doesn’t actually need an introduction. The band which was formed in the beginning on 90s by Peter Spilles and Dirk Scheuber and during almost 20 year of its existence the formation released numerous studio albums, EPs and singles including the newest work ‘Dream, Tiresias!’. PROJECT PITCHFORK is Peter Spilles (vocals), Dirk Scheuber (keyboards), Jürgen Jansen (keyboards), Carsten Klatte (live guitar) and Achim Färber (live drums). http://www.pitchfork.de/ / http://www.myspace.com/projectpitchfork



Music & Performance
PROJECT PITCHFORK immediately crated a unique, intricate and deep atmosphere with the songs and the usual appearances because all members of the band were wearing grey overalls and were all covered with plaster. The charismatic vocalist not only emotionally sang all the compositions but also played some role that changed from one song to another. He used to come to the keyboard players and talked to them a little bit. The drummer also got an opportunity to show himself in a good light playing solo when the rest of the band escaped for a while. Spilles managed to communicate to the fans while singing and it seemed like he devoted some phrases to the crowd. The gig started with ‘If I Could’ which was followed by even more meaningful and dramatic composition ‘God Wrote’.



Actually the setlist was quite diverse and full of well-known songs especially ‘Timekiller’ and ‘Existence’ were met with a storm of applause. And of course there was an encore which includes already mentioned ‘Timekiller’, ‘IO’ and several other great tracks yet I can’t name them now I’m afraid.

Setlist (main part)
01. If I Could
02. God Wrote
03. Requiem
04. Carnival
05. Revolution Now
06. Human Crossing
07. Conjure
08. Fire and Ice
09. Carrion
10. Mine (Beast of Prey)
11. Alpha Omega
12. Drone State
13. An End
14. K.N.K.A.
15. Steelrose
16. En Garde!
17. Existence
18. The Tide
encores

Rating
Music: 10
Performance: 10
Sound: 8
Light: 8
Total: 9.4 / 10



In general the event was really interesting and worthy to see so the people who came to Tochka on 27th of March weren’t disappointed at all and could have more fun at the after party. There were some technical problems with the sound but they didn’t seem the spoil the whole impression of the shows.

All pictures by Elena Budanova
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