The Sazerac, London
17.09.08
Someone once said that the distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success. Who said it is irrelevant, but it’s an interesting point – how much irrational, ridiculous and generally socially unacceptable behavior can be justified by true talent? Throughout history, many of the most famously productive and creative minds have been riddled with mental illness and social problems, but should we really be applauding people who wear their flaws so unashamedly?
Wednesday night in a function room over a fashionable bar in central London; necks crane and people shift around increasingly irritably, trying to catch a glimpse of the man they’ve paid a precious credit-crunched £8 to see. Bradford Cox, AKA Atlas Sound, is sitting contentedly cross-legged onstage, wrapped up in his own world and apparently oblivious to the fact that, in ensuring his own comfort, he is cutting off the vast majority of his audience.
As he sinks into a set of beautifully melancholic iridescent pop, more and more people tut dejectedly and make for the exit. Glorious ambient hazes and purring beats drench those persistent enough, but moody and swelling though the sounds emitting from the stage are, they cannot excuse a man so wrapped up in himself that he seems to have completely forgotten that one of his main obligations in a live show is to actually be seen.
An hour into his set and Cox awakens from his inward spiral of noise, his attention caught by an audience member at the front wearing a Swans t-shirt. And so, bartering for said t-shirt ensues, at first entertaining, but eventually padded out with endless waffle, it becomes uncomfortably dull. Where most front men should know their time to speak is over and move onto the next song, Cox seems insistent that everything he says, however trivial, is worthy of his audiences time.
It has frequently been reported that Bradford Cox does little to endear himself to fans and journalists alike, instead choosing to brood over his own depression and angst. And yet, discomforting though it may be, it’s most likely precisely that depression and angst that feed Atlas Sound and with his band Deerhunter, making them two of the most exciting musical projects around. And lets face it, with music this good you don’t really need to be able to see anything to enjoy yourself anyway, do you?
Katie Price