Ten years ago Simon Morley, then at Full Time Hobby records, decided to set-up on his own after witnessing Three Trapped Tigers’ debut gig, his then paymasters perhaps unsurprisingly, somewhat reluctant to sign the band so soon after getting together, despite Morley’s recommendation.
Thus Blood and Biscuits was born, dedicated to support defiantly uncommercial music such as the Three Trapped Tigers wall of sound. What’s more, to celebrate the label’s continued existence, and now boasting a roster now almost 20 strong, tonight’s show is one of a brace of 10th anniversary parties featuring the London based trio and some of their label mates, with tonight’s support slot including the bonkers and brilliant Physics House Band.
Simon is also in attendance tonight to see his TTT charges perform once more as Tom Rogerson (keys, vocals), Adam Betts (drums), and Matt Calvert (guitar, keys, vocals) emerge, the stuttering drumbeat of ‘Silent Earthling’ getting things underway. The sonic juggernaut generated by the power trio certainly packs a proggy punch with a futuristic industrial makeover, complete with lashings of electronica but minimal vocal. Fortunately we’re not talking 20-minute magnum opuses, each track relatively concise and on first listen, the results are rather enjoyable. Predictably, tonight’s complex arrangements and song structures are delivered water tight, presumably drilled to death over the course of the past thousand years.
For such a seemingly niche band, it’s heartening to see Brudenell pretty full, the audience surprisingly mixed in terms of gender too; in my experience, bands making this sort of racket normally have a male dominated following, (assuming it’s still OK to say that these days) but hey, what do I know any more?
The trio continue to plunder their wondrous back catalogue including “Untitled 1” and “Untitled 6”, opening tracks from their first brace of EPs respectively. Tonight’s highlight however is probably the epic intergalactic odyssey ‘Engrams’, although ‘Cramm’, played during the encore, a frenetic duel between guitar and percussion, each trying to outbonkers the other, runs it pretty close.
Three Trapped Tigers are definitely an acquired taste but a band creating music boasting such precision, imagination and ambition should always be heard.