Basick records 5th birthday party review

To celebrate their 5th birthday, the good people at Basick records decided to throw a bit of a party, just them, 300 friends and fans and some of the hottest bands on their roster of top notch Metal talent, all for free. I mean how could we possibly say no ??

The first band on was the cause of much of the pre-gig buzz. When Paul Ortiz, better known as Chimp Spanner, released the album "At the dream's edge" earlier this year it garnered overwhelmingly positive reviews, and it is all the more incredible when you realise that Chimp Spanner IS Paul Ortiz. He wrote the songs and plays everything on the album. I believe nauseatingly talented is the expression that fits.

Surely playing live would bring him down to earth. I mean it's OK being able to do something in the studio, but could that be translated into a live show ? Well, we were about to find out as Paul took to the stage for the first ever Chimp Spanner live show. We had hoped for a proper 'one man band' experience, you know drum on the back, cymbals between the knees, and all that but instead he copped out and borrowed half of label mates Monuments for tonight.

And you know what, it was an excellent show. We were treated to some of the highlights from the debut album and the whole crowd got right behind the band. Watching Paul's expression change from initial apprehension to delight at the reception he got was cool and hopefully there will be more live dates in the very near future.

Next up was something completely different, and Southend progressive metallers Between the Screams just didn't seem to get the crowd going after the highs of the Chimp Spanner set. I suspect this was mainly down to the vocal sound which, to be fair, wasn't brilliant. If you listen to the stuff on their myspace there is a lot of variety and texture in what they do that was singularly missing from tonights performance.

The die hards against the barrier seemed to be enjoying themselves though, and I am sure that on the basis of their recorded works this was not BTS at their best.

Monuments are a band we knew virtually nothing about before tonights show, but it has to be said the band will have won over quite a few converts on the basis of this energetic performance. It took less than half a song for them to grab the attention of everyone in the room, and they held that attention throughout a pulsating set.

One surprise was that, after borrowing some of Monuments for his opening set, Chimp Spanner returned to the stage joining Monuments as an additional guitarist, and with the nerves of 'his' set out of the way he seemed to be really enjoying this.

The appearance of the evening's headliners TesseracT, who have recently signed a worldwide recording deal with Century Media, was thrown into doubt when vocalist Dan Tompkins was struck by some nasty illness which meant that he couldn't join the festivities. Rather than pull the set the band made the brave decision to treat us to instrumental versions of their tracks. Even without the words it was clear that TesseracT are something special, and as most of the fans down the front knew all the lyrics anyway Dan's absence didn't have too much of an effect on the performance or the reception they received.

TesseracT will have their debut album out soon and all of the indications are that it will be well worth getting hold of.

And so the Basick Records 5th birthday party came to a close for those of us who had to drive home, although there was an after-party that apparently went on for some time, and there were one or two slightly delicate people the next day. We wish Basick, and all the bands we saw, every success. On the basis of tonight they all have a bright future ahead of them.

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