Napoleon IIIrd
The King’s Arms, Salford
08/10/2010

The first and probably only rule of Brainlove Records is to expect the unexpected. The DIY label has carved itself a reputation for championing things that, for want of a better description, don’t quite fit. This showcase features Stairs To Korea’s angst-ridden relationship tales, set to karaoke jukebox sounds; and then there’s Pagan Wanderer Lu, a slightly uncoordinated looking figure making slightly uncoordinated but disarmingly grandiose synth-based pop music. Yet the biggest surprise tonight comes from Brainlove’s most established performer. Napoleon IIIrd who used to arrive on stage in the shadow of a gigantic reel-to-reel tape recorder, half-shouting diatribes over their crackling loops in the manner of a deranged street preacher. Tonight the contrast couldn’t be greater. The behemoth 70s technology has been removed and a pristine silver Apple Mac instead sits in front of him, indicative of the newly glistening sound he proceeds to unleash on us. Vocals are delayed and trebled, soaring out into the King’s Arms’ domed room with assured grace, and they’re carried there by pounding blasts of techno percussion samples and neon flourishes; chasing each other round in circles, their kinetic energy eventually lifts them from the ground too. Napoleon himself cuts a different figure from old; his confrontational posturing has gone, replaced by a loose-limbed immersion into his own music. The shift is such that it buries any trace of his older work – the punch of ‘Defibrillator’, for example, is ripped naked and then re-dressed in billowing technicolour, surrounded by loops and layers.

The downside to this metamorphosis is that in swapping the reel-to-reel for the Macbook, Napoleon IIIrd has shed a lot of what made him unique. What exists now falls into line with a more populist post-‘Merriweather Post Pavillion’/80s revivalist approach. Thankfully, his consummate talent means he’s pulling it off better than most.

Simon Jay Catling