Review: Islam Chipsy & EEK, Arnolfini

Bristol has an itch for leftfield and progressive sounds, and promoters Qu Junktions are so often the people to scratch it. The buzz about tonight’s show has been building for weeks, and it’s completely sold out by the end of the first set. While the main draw is Egyptian maestro Islam Chipsy, there’s excitement on the undercard too, as Blood Sport make an impressive last-minute replacement for the unwell Richard Dawson.  

With such mayhem to come – and the Christmas shopping frenzy building to a bloody crescendo outside – the first set of the evening is a welcome interlude of calm. Barefoot, cross-legged and bespectacled, Kit Wilmans Fegradoe cuts a studious, soul-searching figure, whether he’s gently teasing a laptop or closing his eyes in meditation. His debut live performance – heavy on drones and electronic processing – is promising rather than compelling, but he looks like an artist to keep an eye on. The least ‘treated’ section of the set, in which Fegradoe picks out intricate, medieval-sounding melodies on what is presumably some kind of zither is the most impressive, showing a knack for both improvisation and the blending of traditions.  

Attempts to fuse rock and dance music range from the sublime to the embarassing, but Blood Sport nail it completely. The Sheffield trio’s performance is structured like a DJ set, with a steadily building tension and no breaks for applause.  Things start off minimally, as industrial-leaning guitars flirt with Afrobeat-inspired drums. Other elements join the fray as the set progresses: the most decisive is a drum machine, but there’s a lot to be said for the malfunctioning robot vocal effects too. Before long the audience are caught up in their twisted noise grooves like people at a rave. If acid had happened before punk – as opposed to the other way round – this lot could have been the house band at the Hacienda.  

While Islam Chipsy & Eek make incredibly forward thinking music, their set-up is simple. There are no Macbooks, MIDI controllers or FX racks on display – just a pair of drum kits and what appears to be the sort of Yamaha keyboard you’d see in a beach bar in Tenerife. It’s all about the playing though. Chipsy himself thrashes out wildly pitch-bent patterns with virtuoso fingers and fists, while the two drummers play with uncommon precision and fury. The result is ecstatic, life-affirming music – a joyous assault of percussive artillery and Arabic scale shredding that sends the room completely and utterly bananas. EEK rose to prominence during the Tahir Square uprising of 2011, and while Chipsy claims their music isn’t political their ferocious optimism is revolutionary. If you haven’t seen people crowd-surfing in an art gallery before you may well have just missed your chance.