A vociferous and enthusiastic crowd were treated to a stellar performance from Finland’s Erja Lyytinen on Friday.
I’ve seen her before, but this stripped down 3 piece outfit puts the music over with terrific force and quality.
With Heikki Saarenkunnas on 5string bass and Jesse Lehto, drums they acted as the perfect platform to show off her immaculate control of riffs, solos and sublime slide guitar.
She played the whole of her new album ‘Smell The Roses’, adding ‘You Talk Dirty’ (from the 2022 album ‘Waiting For The Daylight’) and ‘Wedding Day’ (from the 2019 album ‘Another World’), encoring with ‘Lover’s Novels’ (From the 2017 album ‘Stolen Hearts’)
There were more than a few real highlights – ‘Stoney Creek’ really brought out the images of hiking in the Finnish forests, her slide playing on ‘Ball and Chain’ was superb and ‘Abyss’ was really dark and intense. ‘Going To Hell’ was an opportunity for her vocals to be the main feature and she, again, did not disappoint. My favourite number of the night was the ballad ‘Empty Hours’ – dark and beautifully strained and her guitar cutting like a scalpel.
Her riffage is complex and it was important for her to have a bassist capable of keeping the melodies going - Heikki Saarenkunnas was exceptional – and her soloing is among the best around these days. Her slide playing is just the best though, she really has chops, and it is notable that she has played with some of the best modern slide players.
There are many fine live artists around at the moment, Erja Lyytinen is the equal of the very best.
A brilliant evening from a stellar performer.
MUSIC PREMIERES
Four years on from the ‘Actual Life’ series lifting him into the mainstream spotlight, Fred Again.. continues to feel unavoidable. The London producer and DJ born Fred Gibson has moved at a relentless pace, bouncing between sold out stadium dates in New York and surprise appearances at Sheffield’s 1,000 capacity Forge, while also making history as the first electronic artist to top the bill at Reading and Leeds in 2024.
Where the ‘Actual Life’ releases and his fourth album, 2024’s ‘Ten Days’, leaned into warmth and joy pulled from ordinary moments, Gibson has also sharpened his instinct for high impact club weapons rooted in garage, dubstep and jungle. That side of his output lives on ‘USB’, an “infinite album” first imagined in 2022 as a home for tracks that exist outside any fixed universe, including defining moments like ‘Rumble’ and ‘Jungle’.
‘USB002’, the second vinyl only chapter of the ‘USB’ project, brings together 16 recent tracks, many of which surfaced gradually on streaming services over a ten week stretch. The music was shaped live, in step with ten unannounced DJ appearances across the world from Dublin to Mexico City. Even with a Glastonbury style registration system in place, The Times reported that 100,000 people tried to secure tickets for the opening night in Glasgow.
Appropriately, ‘USB002’ feels alive and constantly in motion, helped along by contributions from close collaborators such as Floating Points and Sammy Virji. The rigid, techno driven pressure of ‘Ambery’ echoes elements of Floating Points’ 2019 album ‘Crush’, while Gibson’s take on ‘The Floor’ builds like the slow climb of a rollercoaster before dropping back to earth without warning.
The guest list stretches beyond the usual dance circles, with two Australian guitar bands popping up in unexpected ways. ‘You’re A Star’ reworks Amyl and The Sniffers’ ‘Big Dreams’ into a breakbeat driven rush, while ‘Hardstyle 2’ pulls the experimental post punk edge of Shady Nasty into an Underworld adjacent space alongside Kettama. Gibson’s real trick is his ability to connect with anyone. These tracks are not reinterpretations but full takeovers.
The visual world wrapped around the ‘USB002’ rollout reinforces the instinct behind the music. Phones were prohibited at shows staged in vast warehouse spaces under sweeping light rigs, while Gibson’s team shared striking black and white footage and created artwork for each single on site. Bottling that sense of urgency, the project is rooted in the thrill of the present moment, something Gibson seems able to summon simply by turning up.
If the ‘Actual Life’ series and ‘Ten Days’ captured passing snapshots of experience, ‘USB’ is defined by constant movement, a space where boundaries are removed entirely. Sitting somewhere between an album and a playlist, ‘USB002’ underlines why Fred Again.. feels so dominant right now, and suggests that his current run may only be the beginning of something much bigger.
