Live At Soup- Marconi Union, Contours and The Flightpath Estate

On Saturday evening, as Manchester basked in the June sunshine and Stephenson Square was crammed with afternoon drinkers, The Flightpath Estate DJs (me and Martin on this occasion) arrived to play support to Contours and Marconi Union in the basement of Soup, a bar and gig/ club space in the corner of the square. Soup’s live space is a small room, capacity 150, with some of the most graffitied toilets in the city.

We started early, 6.20pm, with some ambient sounds, Martin and me playing back to back- Sedibus, Synkro’s brand new remix of Khartomb, Coyote, M- Paths, Andy Bell’s cover of Smokebelch, the Sabres of Paradise Endorphin remix of Bjork, Underworld’s Dark And Long (Most ‘Ospitable), Richard Fearless, Sabres Of Paradise’s Chapel Street 7am and a little bit of dub courtesy of African Head Charge and KlangKollektor. At 7.20pm promoter Paul Watt, the man who sorted it for us to play and sporting an Acid House Chancer t- shirt, introduced Contours.

Contours is Tom Burford, from Cumbria but now Manchester based. With his equipment set up at the front of the stage- Moog synth, oscillator, laptop and a large wooden xylophone- Tom starts out slowly, chilled washes of synth filling the space. A minute or two in Tom brings a beat in and from that point on he’s in constant motion, head bobbing, sudden flicks of the wrist that change the sound, drop out the drums and bring them back in, flitting between bits of kit and several times moving to the xylophone, little bursts of wooden melodies on top of the ambient/ electronic/ synth action. Tom doesn’t stop, the set building and flowing for forty minutes, shifting about as he works his way through his tracks. It’s vibrant and engaging, some hints of Four Tet in the sounds emanating from the stage, and very enjoyable.

This is Arp Phase from Contours’ recent album Elevation, minimal, futuristic and organic sounding, the synths and oscillators sounding like they’ve come alive. 

We get fifteen minutes of DJ time while Contours’ equipment is moved and Marconi Union get set to play. There are three members of Marconi Union, from left to right, one playing keys and synth, one with a bank of synths and pedals and playing guitar, and the third on laptop. All three have headphones on and are seemingly lost in their own world, concentrating intently, fully focussed on their part in making the music. 

The songs build slowly, synth chords, waves of sound, drums thudding in, arpeggios from the Telecaster, piano lines and disembodied and distorted voices. Things happen slowly- glaciers move slightly and tectonic plates shift a little in while we wait for chord changes- and then suddenly, walls of noise swell and break. The films projected behind them echo what’s coming through the PA, variously liquids flowing, cityscapes, lines of people walking past from old films- tension and release, ebb and flow, light and shade. This is A Citizen’s Dream from Signals, from the end of  2021. 

Saturday Soup

This Saturday Marconi Union play a gig at Soup in Manchester supported by Contours with further support by The Flightpath Estate DJs. On this occasion the Flightpath Estate DJs are me and Martin. We are starting things off at 6.30 and then on again between Contours and Marconi Union at about 8pm- we’re playing ambient/ electronic sounds and it would be lovely to see anyone who fancies a night of electronic music. There are some tickets left and they’re priced at under £14. 

I saw Marconi Union last march, an audio/ visual experience, three people playing laptop, synth and keys with a guitarist centre stage playing the least guitary guitar. Layers of ambient sounds but with real intent and propulsion. This is from an EP that came out in 2022, The Ilex, a moody and compelling piece of electronic music, non- stop drums and ripples of dark synth textures. It’s from Versions which you can get here. 

In 2021 Marconi Union released a seven track album they recorded with Jan Wobble, a Record Shop Day exclusive. The album opened with Wealth, seven minutes of abstract experimentation, a long slow fade in of ambience and then the deep, dub bass of Mr. Wobble. Jah’s repetitive bass riff provides the bedrock for the sci fi synths and keening guitar lines. 

Wealth

Contours provides support on Saturday, the project of Cumbrian born/ Manchester based DJ and producer Tom Burford. Contours released an EP in April- Elevations- which I’m going to be reviewing for Dr. Rob’s Ban Ban Ton Ton so I won’t steal my own thunder or Rob’s by posting anything about that. Instead here’s The Programme from a 7″/ digital from October 2021 (available at Bandcamp), a three and a half minute focussed excursion on drum machine and synth with some lovely percussion and the hint of some acid.

Yard Gig

Friday night in Cheetham Hill, just north of Manchester city centre with Strangeways prison dominating the after dark skyline, is a part of the city that stubbornly refuses gentrification. A ten minute walk up the main road from the back of Victoria Station brings you to a relatively new Manchester gig/ event venue, The Yard. Friday night’s bill saw Wigan guitarist Mark Peters and Manchester ambient techno three piece Marconi Union playing. Mark stepped up to the low stage, clips from 1950s Western films playing behind him, in line with the North West England meets the wide open spaces of the prairies psychogeography of his albums (2017’s Innerlands and 2022’s Red Sunset Dreams). 

With backing tracks playing through the laptop, Mark plays a wonderfully chilled set of tracks. The songs and his playing reflect the cosmische guitar sounds of Michael Rother, the delay and chorus fretboard work of Vini Reilly and his own ambient guitar styles. The opening song is a new one, Cinder Flower, and there are the windswept but beautiful soundscapes of Innerland songs Ashursts’s Bridge, May Hill and Twenty Bridges. Alpenglow and Magic Hour, both from a just released EP, sound full and rich as the notes fill the converted 19th century building. Alpenglow is chiming krauty bliss, as if Neu! had been from Winstanley rather than Dusseldorf, and Magic Hour is indeed magical, understated but gently heroic, the spirit of early Verve intact. Towards the close of the set, just before Alpenglow, Dot Allison’s voice drifts through the PA as her vocal from Switched On The Sky floats on top of Mark’s guitar and then he soars into the spaced out version of the song, Switched On.

After a short break Manchester trio Marconi Union take the stage, three figures lined up behind a bank of keyboards, synths, laptop and machines. The laptop and synth stage right kick into life and the dark, brooding sounds fill the room, lots of texture and atmospherics but with melodies and purpose too- no floating ambient drift here, but tracks with intent. There is guitar centre stage, the notes another layer of sounds on top of the machine music, along with the sometimes mournful keys/ piano.

The films projected behind them- skyscrapers shot from below, a Manchester Metrolink tram gliding slowly past from left to right-  add to sense of motion. Everything happens without explanation. There’s no chat between the songs. It’s impressive and weighty stuff and the room, pretty close to being sold out, is an appreciative audience. This is Strata Alt, from May last year, giving a good idea of what they do. 

Back in 2011 they recorded a track called Weightless, an eight minute collaboration with sound therapist Lyz Cooper, field recordings, piano and guitar with tones specifically designed to induce a trancelike state and aid relaxation and sleep and reduce anxiety. It has been streamed millions of times on YouTube and if you want more there’s a slowed down and stretched out ten hour version here.