Live

The Sound Movement

Paul Deacon 27/07/2006

The Sound Movement have very itchy feet. Not content with their home town of Melbourne, they decided to up sticks and find a new base, not only in Tokyo, oh no, but also the north of England hoping, maybe, to be inspired by the industrial north? Who knows. Now in 2006 London is their new home for a bitter taste of the cosmopolitan lifestyle that is on offer here.
Perhaps.
A little excessive but who cares; tonight finds them at the "Best of Truck festival" to promote their new album "Ichi Go Ichi E" (refer to their website for more details) down at the Borderline.
The website describes their sound as dark melodic pop; they arrive on stage in suitable attire, apart from the bassist Kat Johnson who does her best to brighten up the dark visual elements with a head of radiant pink hair.
The Sound Movement do not specialise in super charged energetic punk rock, they sway as previously stated towards the dark, dreamy, atmospheric more gentle side of song writing, which evidently tonight is very pleasing on
the ear. Every song has been carefully considered, nothing has been rushed, everything sounds and feels right, even the introduction of a ukulele doesn't sound out of place which took me by surprise somewhat. The predictable highlight was one of their singles which comes with an addictive, joyous guitar riff, which goes down well with the appreciative crowd.

However you do sometimes get the nagging feeling that they could do with some jagged edge to their sound and performance, their stage presence is static and stark which fits with the music but you want something extra, an injection of energy and some passion wouldn't do them any harm. Tonight they have a new fan in the form of myself, but whilst they decide which part of the world would suit them best, The Sound Movement need to focus on why they need to take to the stage in the first place.