No pop but still fizzing

Sunday Herald, The, Feb 20, 2000 by Graeme Virtue

MUSIC Death In Vegas The Arches, Glasgow

RICHARD Fearless and Tim Holmes, the studio brains behind Death In Vegas, know a thing or two about creating organic-sounding electronic music. They effortlessly weave beats, guitars and BBC Radiophonics Workshop whizz-bangs into a full-on rock 'n' roll mixture. But when they take their vision on the road, the pair can't do everything themselves - so on tour the Death In Vegas family expands to include three guitar-playing stooges and a baldie keyboard player.

Most of the crowd are eagerly awaiting the serial-thriller anthem Aisha. But though the main riff is still as vast and heavy as a continental plate, it seems strangely spartan without the rambling- in-tongues contribution of murderous jester Iggy Pop. It may have been naive to expect Mr Pop to fly in from his Malibu home especially for tonight's gig, but you might have thought some of the other - more local - guest vocalists would have made the effort.

Maybe Dot Allison was washing her hair, but the hypnotic Dirge stands up well even without her breathless contribution. Perhaps Jim Reid was watching the repeat of The League Of Gentlemen, but Death In Vegas play Broken Little Sister anyway, and it's only slightly more rubbish than on record. And presumably Bobby Gillespie was busy plotting to throw off the shackles of global capitalism but even without his rant-rapping, Soul Auctioneer remains a snaky slice of chilling hip hop.

Though they specialise in bleak rockin' beats, there are several moments - the spiritual strains of Aladdin's Story, Neptune City's steel-drum carnival - where Death In Vegas transcend any goth labelling and become eerily uplifting. It's just a shame we didn't get Iggy with it.

Graeme Virtue