The Upcoming
  • Cinema & Tv
    • Movie reviews
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Show reviews
  • Music
    • Live music
  • Food & Drinks
    • News & Features
    • Restaurant & bar reviews
    • Interviews & Recipes
  • Theatre
  • Art
  • Travel & Lifestyle
  • Literature
  • Fashion & Beauty
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Competitions
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

CultureLive music

The Notwist at Heaven

The Notwist at Heaven | Live review
26 November 2015
Stuart Boyland
Avatar
Shot by Erol Birsen
Avatar
Stuart Boyland Shot by Erol Birsen
26 November 2015

Music review

Stuart Boyland

The Notwist at Heaven

★★★★★

Highlights

This Room, Consequence

Links

Twitter Facebook Soundcloud Website

Often finding itself the sole German indie record on numerous “best ever album” lists, The Notwist’s sumptuously delicate 2002 LP Neon Golden is a masterpiece worthy of celebration. That is exactly what is received last night, being played in its entirety to a room packed with an exultant hipster crowd. Fittingly, the venue for the worship of this heavenly slice of pop perfection was legendary London nightspot, Heaven.

Last year, The Notwist released two records in quick succession, Close to the Glass and Messier Objects, to end a half-decade long hiatus. The band’s current tour, including a forthcoming stop at the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival, is offering UK fans the first opportunity to catch them live for many a year.

The band’s ethereal nature is in keeping with their sound, which is as varied and hard to pin down during their seminal work as it is throughout their catalogue. There is, however, an overarching mood dictated by the yearning weightlessness of Markus Acher’s voice, the sparkling jangle of his guitar and the electronica-infused dreamscape his band creates beside him, using instruments as varied as the synthesiser and the glockenspiel.

It’s Martin Gretschmann’s programming and synths which are most obviously responsible for the other-worldly wonder of Neon Golden, through the cerebral, futurist edge they lend to the most memorable tracks. Opener One Step Inside Doesn’t Mean You Understand bristles with spidery, scratching rhythms over a delicately plucked arpeggio melody, while This Room squelches and stomps in pulse-quickening fashion. To focus only on the electronics is to consider only one part of a mightily impressive live act, with their obvious sonic understanding of each other honed over a career spanning more than 25 years.

It’s this telekinetic tightness, coupled with their adherence to the original arrangement of Neon Golden that ensures the same delirious atmosphere under Heaven’s arched ceiling as the seminal work has had in countless bedrooms across the world. The crowd are held in rapture until long after the final joyful, hypnotic chord of album closer Consequence – a delight among delights – has rung out.

★★★★★

Stuart Boyland
Photos: Erol Birsen

For further information about The Notwist and future events visit here.

Watch the video for Consequence here:

Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party.

YouTube privacy policy

If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh.

 

 

Related Itemslive musicreview

More in Live music

South Facing Festival: Jungle bring their signature neo-funk to Saturday night

★★★★★
Jessica Wall
Read More

Patti Smith at the London Palladium

★★★★★
Jennifer Sanin
Read More

The Libertines at Wembley Arena

★★★★★
Sophia Moss
Read More

Kaleidoscope Festival cements its status as a family favourite at Alexandra Palace

★★★★★
Jessica Wall
Read More

Yola at Koko

★★★★★
Natallia Pearmain
Read More

John Legend at Somerset House

★★★★★
Jonathan Marshall
Read More

Primal Scream at Alexandra Palace Park

★★★★★
Sophia Moss
Read More

Black Midi at Somerset House

★★★★★
Jasper Watkins
Read More

BST Hyde Park: Johnny Marr, Stereophonics and headliners Pearl Jam bring star quality to Saturday night

★★★★★
Selina Begum
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Music review

Stuart Boyland

The Notwist at Heaven

★★★★★

Highlights

This Room, Consequence

Links

Twitter Facebook Soundcloud Website

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • Camden Fringe 2022: Rome 3000 (Julius Caesar) at Canal Cafe Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Midsummer Mechanicals at Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Luck
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • “The show makes you question, think about things and look into yourself. It speaks to you”: Tom Sturridge and Vivienne Acheampong on The Sandman
    Cinema & Tv
  • “Theatre is totally unique… there’s simply nothing else quite like it”: An interview with Sir Howard Panter as the new cast of Jersey Boys opens at Trafalgar Theatre
    Theatre
  • Jersey Boys bring on a new cast at Trafalgar Theatre
    Theatre
  • All of Us at the National Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • The Sandman
    ★★★★★
    netflix
  • Midsummer Mechanicals at Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Jersey Boys bring on a new cast at Trafalgar Theatre
    Theatre
  • Luck
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • South Facing Festival: Jungle bring their signature neo-funk to Saturday night
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • “Everything that’s happened to me has brought me here”: David Leitch on Bullet Train and working with Brad Pitt
    Cinema & Tv
  • The Tempest at Shakespeare’s Globe
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why
With the support from:
International driving license

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

Ten of the coolest bars you can find on the slopes
Courtney Barnett at The Forum | Live review