After much exciting press covering this month’s release of ‘Disconnect From Desire’ is the eagerly anticipated follow up to debut LP ‘Alphanisms’. Dream Pop Darlings School of Seven Bells have finally given their London fans a show in the capitol to show their appreciation... Unless of course you were lucky enough to be at their tiny Pure Groove event at The Drop venue just 12 days earlier, which I will draw on comparisons later.
So, 9.30pm and the capacity Scala crowd were treated to the concert they had been waiting for. School of Seven Bells calmly entered the stage and instantly reminded their fans of why they fell in love with the trio in the first place, with a favourite from Alphanisms, in the form of ‘Half Asleep’ before entertaining us with tracks from the just released ‘Disconnect From Desire’. Debut single from the new record, ‘Windstorm’ proceeded things whilst they carried on the set with gorgeous adaptations of the likes of ‘Camarilla’, ‘Babelonia’, ‘Bye Bye Bye’ and my personal highlight ‘ILU’. After ending the hour long set with ‘My Cabal’ they were persuaded by the crowd to come back on for an encore, which was the 11 minute ‘Alphanisms number ‘Sempiternal/Amaranth’.
Both the Deheza twins, Alejandra and Claudia, as well as Benjamin Curtis and the talented un-credited stage drummer, crafted the stage with such elegance and grace that there was no need for such an eccentric stage performance, letting their clear Shoegaze Pop sound do all the talking.
Sound wise, the venue made it seem slightly quieter compared to the more intimate Drop show just a few days earlier, with that performance creating a more noisy drowned out effect, where as tonight Alejandra’s sweet vocals were made to sound much clearer. Call it what you will. School of Seven Bells manage to create the fusion of Lo-Fi noise and pure Pop music without it sounding like a mess. A performance of beauty, both to the eye and to the ear that lets the audience just stand there in awe.
Words: Freddy Rothman
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