When Saints Go Machine
XOYO, London
07/06/2011

When Saints Go Machine creep out onto the dimly lit XOYO stage in front of a baying crowd. Hoods up, eyes down, they unfurl a graceful, operatic opener in ‘Parix’. Frontman Nicholas Vonsild is silhouetted, strands of blonde hair electrified by the dim blue stage lights. His distinctive, wavering falsetto (part Anthony Hegarty, part Kate Bush) rings out clearly and he moves fluidly to the music, unselfconscious and balletic. The other three flank him on drums, synths, samplers and effects, equally engrossed in the sounds they’re creating – there’s a sense of togetherness in their collective endeavour. From the off, When Saints Go Machine are visibly and audibly the real deal.

It’s a set culled largely from their new album ‘Konkylie’ (Danish for conch), with a couple from the earlier ‘Fail Forever’ EP, and even a sadly compressed half-hour slot gives When Saints Go Machine the opportunity to demonstrate the breadth of their talents. Current single ‘Church & Law’ pulses menacingly; ‘The Same Scissors’ is a vivid sonic scrape, like a plane trail catching the sun on a bright dawn. Future internet hit ‘Kelly’ is a pleasingly camp neu-disco number that sounds like nothing so much as a lost Erasure classic. They finish with album finale ‘Add Ends’, a beautiful pointillistic chamber-pop song with groaning string stabs nestling alongside icy synth octaves, and a spine-tingling extended outro.

This is an accomplished collection of songs from a band at full strength, at ease with themselves, and doing what all so many artists strive for: cleanly synthesising their feelings, thoughts and personalities into sound. It’s no mean feat – people are already noticing that there’s something special happening here and, if justice is done, When Saints Go Machine will get the recognition they deserve sooner rather than later.

John Rogers