Live Review: Gignition: Reign, Branches Of Berlin, Colour Of Indigo, Miranda & Gordo

Opening act Miranda & Gordo are a three-piece of amorphous composition. While keeping consistent to an indie/soft-rock guiding sensibility, the band members swap instruments and vocal duties several times throughout their set. Variation is to be commended, but they are truly at their best with the second drummer creating a wall of sound and flourish that carries the rest of band with it, instead of the jarring abstractions of the other configurations. Colour Of Indigo carry its weight of having five players well. Beginning with a cover track they quickly move into their own work, gelling well together as they focuse on a high-end sound. With excellent backing vocals and a tasteful lead guitar in play, the lead vocalist, however, seems to keep to a consistent pattern that lacks range, which let the sound as a whole fall into a repetition of sorts.

The evening switches to prog-rock with Branches Of Berlin coming on board. Featuring keys and plenty of echo on the vocals, there is a great sense of propulsion working from the rhythm section. The bass even took to the lead with an excellent intro to track Insomniatic, and with an instrumental finale they display a compelling darker side. Finally, Reign take hold of the prog-rock vibes floating in the air and anchor an earthy, bluesy drone to the bottom end. Starting out with pitched, sustained notes to form an excellent contrast with the deeper tone of the vocals, they travel through several catchy melodies, before finishing with several tracks that find them in a mesh of monotonous noise. Perhaps designed to entrance, this undelineated wall of fuzz leaves the mind straying and the gig over before we know it.