Live Review: My Disco, Marcus Whale, Hviske

Minimalism shaping grand emotion was the order of the night at Newtown Social Club for My Disco's last stop on their summer tour. From the headliners down through Marcus Whale and opening duo Hviske, there was a common thread of space, intensity, the blurring of technology and organic instrumentation to create dramatic musical pieces.

Hviske are Kusum Normoyle and Ivan Lisyak and they generated a densely rhythmic mix of techno and cold-wave electronica that hit the occasional peak, but for the most part settled into a rewarding mix of hard surface sounds and minor melodic excursions. Live, Normoyle's vocals were the weak-point compared to the more layered and integrated sound on their recordings and she seemed unsettled and distracted, never fully immersing herself in the music.

Marcus Whale's solo work seems to go to another level every time I see him live. Flanked by two drummers with stripped-down kits (tom, snare, ride cymbal) and performing over backing tracks, Whale took us deep into his album Inland Sea, his voice urging, consoling and serenading the audience with conviction and passion. The closest comparison is Bjork's more recent work crossed with avant hip hop and dark electronica. A compelling performance.

My Disco have progressively peeled back the layers of their sound with each new album, while simultaneously ratcheting up the tension and their avant-garde leanings. They are still a band of guitar, bass and drums, but they now sound like a raw machine, ominous and commanding with their instruments often bathed in as much silence as coruscating noise, relentless drones and repetition. King Sound set the scene with Liam Andrews intoning those two words like an android with a glitch in its system while guitarist Benjamin Andrews scattered shards of distortion across the audience at high volume. The heartbeat of the band is still Rohan Rebeiro who brings the most humanistic element to their music; he controls the machine with his blend of doom- and jazz-tinged tribalism. My Disco's intensity and commitment to their sonic aesthetic is what defines them. From throwing in an overlong drum solo to the complete lack of audience interaction, they have their own musical ecosystem, which made their set feel like we were temporary visitors to their fascinating, hypnotic and shadowy world.