Music

Two Spot Gobi album launch at the Barbican Theatre in Plymouth (review)

15th April 2009

If transatlantic whisperings are to be believed, 2009 could be the breakthrough year for the distinctive six piece vibes of Two Spot Gobi, a band that owes its unique sound as much to the surfer-boy culture of the South West as it does to the amazing talent of its members.

It was, therefore, with a mixture of local pride and no little excitement that a sell-out crowd piled into the Barbican Theatre for the official launch of Gobi’s debut album, Everywhere You Should Have Been.

The show was split into two parts and opened with an acoustic set which really accentuated the individual talents of the six band members - particularly with the raw emotion of Borrowed Time and the beautiful Outside.

Indeed, the stripped-down emotion of the acoustic set revealed a new side to TSG and displayed a band that was much tighter than in their frenetic very early days.

As impressive as all this individual musicianship was, Two Spot Gobi are so much more than the sum of their parts and it wasn’t until after the interval and the introduction of the odd electric guitar that the band’s onstage chemistry began to shine through.

Playing tracks from their new LP, it was impossible not to be uplifted by the likes of Come And Go and Otherside Of The World, both of which opened with the melancholy sound of Rob Lewis on the cello before being diverted in a happier direction by a combination of trumpet, funk-guitar and lead singer James Robinson’s soulful vocals.

Part of the appeal of Gobi is the elusiveness of their sound, which is almost impossible to pin down.

Broadly described in their PR as ‘alt pop’, this does not do justice to the huge variety of influences that make up the Two Spot sound, which encompasses rock, funk, jazz and even some drum'n'bass.

Listening to the deliciously summery Sunshine Lady, their debut single, followed by the ska-infused Hey Now and the anthemic Let’s Get Lost, I was staggered by the musical diversity of this brilliant band.

So, if you like your music neatly packaged into genres with clearly defined boundaries and limited imagination, it is probably best to avoid Two Spot Gobi for fear of a heart attack.

If, however, you consider yourself to be of a slightly wilder disposition, then do anything you can to get hold of the new album. You won’t regret it.

PETER EVANS
PICTURES: ROB EDWARDS

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