THIS IS THE NORTH - WE DO WHAT WE WANT

NOCTURNAL DICTIONARY AND MOONWRECK LIVE AT THE STARMS: 16:05:15

Ghostly shadows of raindrops were scattering the pavement and gradually drying in the sun when I set off to walk to The Stakesby Arms. It's quite a few years ago since I last made that journey to watch bands play, and we're talking about the days of Jon The Dog and One Way Path here, when the back room of The Starms seemed like a little sweat filled coal bunker.

It was the same night as The Mighty Boro were playing Brentford in the Championship play-offs semi, so the bar was full of punters eagerly spurring on the Teessiders. Needless to say The Starms is now a completely refurbished, clean and airy pub. The drinks were cheap too. Because it's situated on its own in a residential area it's the ideal place to put bands on, being within walking distance of anywhere in Whitby, yet unlikely to be plagued by opportunist hen parties or drunken yob gangs from Pontefract.

Hey! Hey! We're The Nocturnal Dictionary!

The back room where the bands played was stuffed with a nice cross section of the local populace and, as a consequence, boiling hot. There was no separate stage, which I like. In a room of such modest proportions there is no need for a raised area and being on the same level as the bands somehow adds an air of intimacy.

I remember when I lived in Nottingham going into some kind of cellar bar to see a local band called Savoy Grand. What struck me about them was their braveness in allowing space and silence to intervene between the notes. It certainly wasn't rock music, because there wasn't enough of it. A lot of it was a kind of electrically charged emptiness. Nocturnal Dictionary had that same mesmeric quality about them, which is either a calculated conceit or something that has naturally evolved as they've started playing together.

Nocturnal Dictionary have obviously spent time arranging the building blocks of their music, and it shows. From what I recall the first song seemed to be a solo for guitar and vocals, a fairly skeletal opener, but focussed and intense. Unconventional instrumentation in the form of various saxophones coupled with a searing flute intervention from Izi (I think), kept things interesting and rather marvellously melodic. Intriguing and fun and serious at the same time.

A band showing restraint by not jumping about much

One that stuck was the tune Tate Hill, which begins with synchronised clapping and then opens out into a tuneful homage to one of Whitby's favourite inclines. I was talking to Shepton about never having seen anybody tease the drums with brushes at The Starms before, and he replied that Nocturnal Dictionary play with that thing you don't see around here much these days. What's it called now?...Oh yes, restraint.

At one point the bass player's hands became struck down with cramp. Vigorous finger exercises were required to get everything moving again, but all was well in the end. I loved them (the band that is, not the bass player's fingers), and I hope they bravely keep things pared down and stick with their vision.

Moonwrecking across the universe

I was a tad sceptical after speaking to Moonwreck about whether they could recreate that swirling envelope of blissed out sound, sculpted so carefully for their recordings, in the context of a live performance. The answer was they did. It was down to playing loud, but crucially not too loud. Oh, it could have so easily dissolved into a mush of undifferentiated slurry, but it remained glowingly vibrant and shiny instead.

Rich Wastell uses more pedals than the entire Tour de Yorkshire. They sit there on stage with their little LED lights blinking. I think he could play a chord, nip to the bar to fetch a pint and then come back with that note still ringing out, such is the joy of sustain. If a band is noticeably reliant on technology, the key thing is that it is not an end in itself, but rather at the service of the songs. In other words the music must come first, as indeed it does here.

Songs like Indio and The Plain see the four members of Moonwreck intermesh to bring pleasure and the occasional pang from a vibrating tooth filling. At one point an iPad was used for a little synthy addition to a song. When it didn't quite work first time, everyone looked at Shepton, which was amusing. It all worked out in the end though, and correctly configured music was soon sweeping into the ears of eager soundheads again with its customary Golden Syrup texture. To cap it all, going into the bar for air, a quick glance at the big screen relayed the fact that Middlesbrough had won 5 - 1 on aggregate.

I went home happy clutching a free Moonwreck CD given to me by Rick, which is currently living in the car stereo, such as it is. Didn't get a chance to speak to any of Nocturnal Dictionary though, maybe next time?

Basically a blistering success all round and The Starms is back on the map, it was the kind of night that makes you glad you live in Whitby and glad that, to steal a phrase from David Peace's Red Riding trilogy, 'This is The North - we do what we want'.

NOCTURNAL DICTIONARY

MOONWRECK
SAVOY GRAND: A Trained Dog