Errors

ICA,

London

16/04/09

 

‘Helloooo, thanks for coming. We’re going to play some songs for you’ Simon Ward, Errors front-man (ish) kindly informs us, before sheepishly adding, ‘Well, I’m sure you were aware of that already.’

 

With any prospective career as an after dinner speaker down the pan, the crack of James Hamilton’s drum sticks signals the opening chimes of the Explosions In The Sky-esque ‘Still Game’ and, from here, Errors simply do no wrong. Capturing the immediate resonance that made ‘It’s Not Something But It’s Like Whatever’ a candidate for 2008’s left-on-rotation award, oldies (Hans Hermann, Songos Ya Mongos!) and newbie (Mess) segue perfectly into Errors electronic orchestra.

 

Armed with a Mac setup to worry Robert Gates (US Defence Secretary), Ward and co. give guitars electromagnetic gnashers, drums, a clinical ferocity, and defy every bone in your body to not vibrate. ‘Toes’ throbs and slow builds to its unnervingly wobbly crescendo, ‘Salut! France’ is invigorated with live, dirty shoegaze beauty, while ‘Pump’ still stands as Errors’ masterpiece – a tech addled show-stopper that’d put Booka Shade to minimal, understated shame.

 

One man leans against the

ICA’s back wall, eyes closed, head lolling and towards the front, three kids lose the plot to anything that vaguely approaches a breakdown. To some of the ICA’s Guardian-guided it probably looks like a Skins episode in slow mo, hence the inane audible chatter, but for those rightly riveted front and centre, your internal organs are probably still reverberating around your ribcage like an internal, offal xylophone.

Sherief Younis