Morcheeba
-GORILLA, MANCHESTER-
I’m immediately greeted with the haunting voice of Irena Zilic as I arrive at Manchester underground hot spot Gorilla.
Bosnia and Herzegovina native Irena has a wonderful tone and fantastic stage presence, bouncing off her accompanying musician with ease as she opens up the night.
It’s already quite busy when I arrive part way through her act but it quickly fills as the stage time for Morcheeba draws closer.
90s electronic stalwarts Morcheeba haven’t been seen on the circuit much in recent years but their return in June – album Blaze Away was their first in five years – has obviously gone down well.
The strobe lighting welcomer brings the band out and they’re straight in with their soothing, industrial sounds. Lead vocalist Skye Edwards steals the show immediately, displaying eccentricity and swagger from the second her boot hits the stage. She’s clearly an absolute force to be reckoned with.
The mini laser show takes us through tracks from the new album, ‘Never Undo’ being a real highlight, and the crowd is transfixed.
They glide their way through old and new, remembering being in Gorilla back in 2012 (it’s surprising how much of this crowd were at their last Manchester performance) and delivering an eclectic mix of funk and easy beats – ‘Friction’ makes me want to lie on a beach but ‘Otherwise’ soothes me.
Not content with throwing back 12 years, the group then introduces a couple of songs from The Big Cold Album, citing its 20th birthday this year. Perhaps their most well know track, ‘The Sea’, goes down well but it’s obvious that these are die hard fans as they’re just as happy to hear the other tracks.
Then we’re back to some introductions to the new album by lead guitarist and part time vocalist. There’s a definite funk and soul vibe to the new stuff, a rapping section that surprisingly really works and an epic guitar solo that he was clearly ready for.
All in all a structured and nostalgic night. I do wonder how much appeal Morcheeba have to new audiences… I felt like one of the youngest people there by a good ten years and being accidentally headbutted three times by the same overzealous headbanger (yep, at a Morcheeba gig…) told me that I was definitely in a crowd of die hard fans. I guess the gap they have had in releases might account for this though. I will definitely be listening to the new album again, however, so hopefully this could be their moment for a new fan base.
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