SOHN
– GORILLA, MANCHESTER –
Sohn, aka Christopher Taylor, strolls onto the dry iced stage in a sweltering Gorilla, black hoodie pulled over his head, looking every bit the mysterious, enigmatic electronic artist we see so much of today. Taking his seat at a keyboard at the front of the stage, flanked by a couple of other members of the band (who he later jokes are swathed in dry ice at his request so people can’t se them), the atmosphere in the nearly full room isn’t exactly electric, in fact there’s a lot of people talking and it’s pretty bloody annoying.
Taylor doesn’t exactly launch into the first few tracks, rather he feels his way in gently, and because of this he doesn’t exactly grab the crowd by the lapels and drag them into his luscious world of exquisitely crafted bleeps and electronic swells. The crowd at the front seem quite rapt, but the people further back are still chatting away, and it feels like this is going to be one of those nights where the act on stage just can’t connect properly with the audience and everything is a bit ‘meh’.
But then something happens. Sohn lets out a voice so unbelievably exquisite and crystal clear at the start of ‘Veto’ that it shuts the entire crowd up there and then, and suddenly everyone towards the back who seemed disengaged all of a sudden are as mesmerised as the people down the front. All it took was a ‘I won’t play your games any more’ in a tone so incredible that the crowd couldn’t do anything else but shut up and listen.
From here on in, the gig is pretty magnificent, with Sohn seemingly oozing confidence and magnetism that wasn’t there earlier. The clear highlight is an extraordinary ‘Tempest’, where Taylor sings completely acapella for the first minute or so, that amazing voice in full flow, silencing the crowd into complete and utter awe, it really is stunning. The rods of lighting behind him bathe the stage in blood red, making for a moody setting that hides Taylor from plain view, just that heavenly voice coming out of a back drop more resembling hell.
The gig turns again as Taylor, beaming from ear to ear after the reception he’s afforded following ‘Tempest’, declares ‘fuck it, let’s party’ before launching into a huge ‘Artifice’, the most pop-ready thing he’s done, turned into a swirling, bass heavy dirty night club banger followed up by ‘Lights’ with its hypnotic syncopated beats moving the crowd’s collective bodies in staccato dance moves. Everything sounds about eighteen times bigger than on his album, and it suits him down to the ground. The place is going off as he ends the night with his biggest hit to date ‘The Wheel’, the perfect finish to what was a slightly odd gig; the first third barely registering, the rest of it being absolutely brilliant.
If he can get his pacing better and make the whole of his set as mesmerising as the back end, then Sohn will be on to something truly special.
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