Gig review by Steve Bennett at The Temple

Mashing up eclectic songs, lyrics and soundbites provides Eccentronic with an entertaining line in high-energy musical mashups, Frisky and Mannish-style.

However, applying a similarly chaotic, chimeric approach to the show as whole produces a messy cacophony that doesn’t display their catchy tracks to the best advantage.

Still, you can’t accuse John Callaghan, a former Warp Records artist self-described as ‘the Timmy Mallett of Techno’ and chanteuse diva Miss Hypnotique of scrimping on presentation. They have instruments scattered around the room including a clarinet and a theremin, perform with an in-your-face zeal and are resplendent in costumes that combine cabaret chic with prison stripes.

All this and there are just six paying punters in the room, which is certainly a barrier to the show going down as well as it should – especially the audience participation sections with which the duo persist, despite the inevitable awkwardness.

The jail garb comes because the loose theme of the show – often abandoned for long tracts - is that the pair are on trial for crimes against music. This may be copyright breaches on their backing tracks, but with typically muddled thinking, that’s not entirely clear – and it could just be ‘guilty pleasures’ upsetting the taste police.

Such jumble pervades all the sections when they are not singing. At the end, for example, a giant beachball is thrown over the audience. It seems to be a reference to the guardian ‘Rover’ spheres from cult TV show The Prisoner, whose theme tune formed part of the introductory music 50 minutes earlier – but it’s demanding a lot of the audience to remember that, especially as the beach ball isn’t pure white, as in the show, but has the design of a football.

Despite a sound mix that sometimes overwhelmed the vocals, the tracks themselves were infectious and fun. Their swopped lyrics often aren’t that funny – such as making the Girls’ Aloud song Sound Of The Underground about the London Tube – but the enthusiasm and musicianship shines through. And there are original compositions, too, such as My Mainstream Song – whose simple lyrics are hilariously destroyed by an eccentric dance routine and violently jerking melody making it wonderfully weird.

They are a likeable and talented duo, of that there’s little doubt, but the sloppy direction of show is out of tune with the craft that goes into the music.

Review date: 6 May 2014
Reviewed by: Steve Bennett