Gig Review: Borough Council, Moreish Idols & The Early Mornings
The first of Brixton’s ‘I Love Mondays’ series was a night of unpredictable new music from The Early Mornings, Borough Council and Moreish Idols.
Windmill, Brixton. I Love Mondays - a residency taken up by psych-pop band Moreish Idols to workshop new material and give the stage to some of South London’s most beloved bands whilst they’re at it. On February 12th, they were joined by The Early Mornings and Borough Council. And me, nursing two pints of coke on a four-day hangover, ready to give you the scoop.
Brixton-based trio The Early Mornings were up first with a dish of solid, formulaic live music that lands somewhere in-between The Raincoats and HUNNY BUZZ. Listen to ‘Just a Picture’ and you can hear it, slightly scribbled-in, slightly messy, like tunes played live. It was that type of simplicity that, in the mood for it, sweetens the room like a dollop of honey in tea. But shoved in the back of a sticky corner behind a guy a foot taller than you, and it unfortunately sounded a little clunky, a little infantile.
After standing rowdily in the back of the crowd for the first set and taking videos from curious angles, Moreish Idols were up next. What the five-piece can do with an arrangement is impressive - for ten seconds after a new refrain is introduced, everything seems to unravel, before the folky acoustic guitar slots everything into place again. Played by Dylan Humphries, the addition of the bass clarinet on most tracks added the unique spark missing from the body of their sound. The crowd swelled at the pinnacle of their set, but technical difficulties spun the pace out a little, and the final after-taste was yes, some bloody good songs, most of them alright. When they had it together, their psychedelic springiness lit the room like a disco ball. For the most part, we nodded along with them in lukewarm appreciation, ruined only by an oddly confused ending - the stage looked a little lonely, a little unfriendly by then. Come back next Monday for more, they grinned. The slightly despaired promise for better next time needn’t be said aloud.
There’s mysteriously little about Borough Council online. This seems to be done intentionally: google ‘Borough Council Band’ and you’ll sift through articles on council tax, and not much else. The trio are formed of brothers Haydn Ackerley, Joe Ackerley, and long-standing friend and drummer Tom Healey and have released only two official songs, ‘Prescribed’ and ‘Casino’, to much interest in the post-punk scene. Boldly, they opened their set with the two pre-released songs; in-keeping with their inscrutable, unassuming air, the rest of the set was anyone’s guess. What preceded was a clipped but crisp, clean set of songs. ‘I love you, I look both ways’ they sang in one neat track, somewhere between the clear, simple lyricism of Fontaines DC and a darker version of The Cure, with the guitar-playing of Joy Division. The band kept their cool, clean demeanour until the final song; Haydn jumped and thrashed on stage with his guitar splicing through the air until one, two, three strings burst off. It was the apex of emotion the night had needed all along. Borough Council are ones to watch - mystifyingly cool, with a laid-back starkness in their lyricism, a broody heat in their sound, and broken strings to round off the night. If I didn’t love Mondays before, I do now.
Get tickets to the next I Love Mondays on February 19th here.