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Review: Amplifier, The Exchange
Five albums and more than a decade on from their inception, Amplifier might be forgiven for thinking that their career should have progressed beyond the cosy ‘Sexchange’ (as recently rechristened by a sniggering spraycan reprobate). So what’s holding them back? Maybe it’s the mismatch between image and music. With their short hair and matching all-black attire (including black ties), they look like a Joy Division tribute act. You’d be hard-pushed to pin them down to a single genre too. Early psychedelic space rock gave way to the grandiose prog of the magnificent The Octopus, but now they’ve taken a turn into concise, stripped-back hard rock on current album Mystoria. Then there’s the fact that they hail from Manchester, which is hardly the rock and roll capital of the world. (Nor, it should be conceded, is Bristol.)
So it’s a hardcore audience of enthusiastic proggers and metalheads that greets the smartly attired quartet as they kick off with the enormous riff of the Rush-esque Magic Carpet. The set is dominated by Mystoria, but even this yields such exceptional multi-layered treats as OMG alongside the more straightforward likes of Named After Rocky. Frontman and lead guitarist Sel Belamir, who has seemed a little distant and tetchy at previous gigs, is on garrulous and playful form, inviting us to shout out topics of conversation between songs (“Who are you going to vote for?” “None of the above”). He also demonstrates once again his mastery of that impressive array of effects pedals to help conjure up a sound far larger than seems possible from just four musicians, whose ranks include powerhouse drummer Matt Brobin and unassuming former Oceansize guitarist Steve Durose. Shame, then, that The Octopus has been more or less squeezed out of the set, though we are eventually rewarded with a storming encore of Interstellar. Amplifier may never break the cult status glass ceiling, but there’s nothing here that more adventurous fans of Muse wouldn’t enjoy.
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