Zootwoman wear sharp suits, make-up and sport an 80s-tastic Gazza Numan sound. There's three of them, they're signed to Wall Of Sound and the buzz about their live set has been kicking around London since their first gig at Trash about a month ago. The aforementioned 'buzz' is basically down to a certain Stuart Price AKA Jacques Lu Cont, AKA Les Rythmes Digitales.
This particular sonic venture from the Reading boy has appeared on the odd twelve inch but this is the live interpretation. Price rocks out on bass, Adam Blake Kraftwerks out on keys and his brother, Johnny Blake grips the mic and lets rip with some unhinged guitar solos.
They start with current single 'You & I' and it's obvious that Stuart has always been a bit of a Nik Kershaw fan and Johnny jives out on Spandau Ballet. It's all a big concept. The third track, 'Living In A Magazine' is the next single. It's a synopsis of what Zootwoman are all about. They take Eighties ideals and pastiche the whole irony of style mags, cash and advertising into one mega-rad riff of Psychedelic Furs meets Pretty In Pink product.
It's a grungey old hole the Astoria and since the Mean Fiddler have taken it over it feels as though the heating's been turned off. It's lacking in atmosphere but by the time Zootwoman play 'It's Automatic' -a Michael Jackson bassline colliding with Cameo's 'Single Life'- the girls at the front are starting to scream at the West London brat pack.
Finishing off with a cover of Kraftwerk's 'The Model', the Fender Strat, the Roland and the Rickenbacker leave us feeling slightly empty and not at all happy with everything the Eighties stood for.
After avoiding Bent with a spell in the totally freezing Keith Moon Bar, it's time for the Lo-Fidelity Allstars. What a band! Now led by a A One Man Crowd Called Gentile, or Andy, he's doing the John Wayne thing in baggies. I thought they'd reduced the band but there's six of them on stage, all with silly names ranging from the Albino Preist on keys, decks and vocals through Many Tentacles on keys, bass and vocals and Pete Maloney on keys to The Slammer on drums. Andy also plays guitar. This is the sort of outfit that makes me want to start a band.
The bassline of 'Sleeping Faster' is wholly recognisable but I can't pin it down. It's kind of Chemical Brothers go kamikaze. 'Battle Flag' brings on the dirty high hats, like a dance version of Spiritualized. The guitar player's shadow projects over the projections and the pre-recorded vocals confuse the audience as A One Man Crowd Called Gentile messes with the masses minds, swigging his Guinness type liquid.
'Voodoo Haze' brings on the S&M Beats and 'Lo-Fi's In Ibiza' is pure rock'n'roll. Funkadelic bongo craziness! 'Blisters On My Brain' meanwhile, combined with Many Tentacles' 'Pimping On The Keys' (a reworking of the chaps' 'Disco Machine Gun'), goes slightly Prodigy's 'Charly' before mixing in with the Breeders' 'Cannonball'.
By this time the horn section have moved in and the Azzido Da Bass style tramplings of mix'n'match genre-ism prove the Lo-Fi's to be fully wired and up to the upcoming festival circuit. Brilliant!
IMAGES: OLLY HEWITT
