ELLiS·D - Spill EP (Live) Review
ELLiS·D takes the live experience to all new heights on a recording of Spill in V11, Rotterdam that bursts with relentless energy in such a way that you can feel the sweat radiating around the room.
‘Hello Rotterdam, how we doin’?’ And with that, ELLiS·D(ickson) launches into a frantic, breakneck guitar-and-drums set, never giving up and never slowing down. It’s an unrelenting wall of sound that echoes drum-driven bands like A Place to Bury Strangers and Pneu, with the sheer intensity of a master at work. The Fat Dog drummer’s solo project is captured in excellent sound quality on this live album, recorded at V11 Rotterdam and opening with the searing ‘Chasing The Blue’. ‘I’ll take nothing out of you,’ he hurls at the audience, taking us into a swirl of sound that is intimate and full of improvisation, allowing for a maverick display of genius.
This was ELLiS·D’s first sold-out show outside the UK, and the recording allows the band to showcase their connection with the audience, taking them on a whirlwind in the process. Rotterdam’s basement venues have become something of a musical tastemaker through the Left of the Dial showcase festival, and any jitters about recording a live album are washed aside the moment ‘Chasing The Blue’ comes crashing in like a live grenade exploding into a room that’s already at boiling point. The studio polish is gone, leaving the music stripped back and raw. Opening with a seven-minute track, you are warned from the off: this is something that doesn’t stick to the rules and is daringly original.
By the time ‘Humdrum’ arrives and the bouncy, almost Talking Heads-propelled beat kicks in, you’re revelling in the immediate bursts of guitar, chaos and energy. It’s a scattershot approach that, in less skilled hands, could feel like throwing everything at a wall and seeing what sticks. Not so with Dickson: it’s a choreographed display of chaos that feels refined, ready to explode at any moment. The avant-garde throwback style feels nostalgic and warm whilst offering up something wickedly new and inventive. The guitar allows Dickson to showcase his influences, with early Cure-style paranoia creeping through: here’s a maverick who never slows down and can make you feel like you’re being watched.
That range becomes even more apparent in the later tracks. ELLiS·D has already shown it live at festivals like Outer Town and 2000trees, and ‘Insect’ taps into the latter’s more metal-friendly vibe. The drumming gets increasingly experimental as we drift into noise rock territory, where the Pneu comparisons come through. Ellis builds on his work with Strange Cases and Jealous Nostril, continuing to evolve and offer something new. He shouts out Savages, Nina Simone and the Oh Sees as artists who have inspired him, and it’s easy to hear those influences reflected in his live sound. You’re watching the performer separate from the person and throw himself into the music, with everything coming together.
It is dramatic but doesn’t feel forced, unpretentious whilst being a delicately crafted display of artistic talent. The glam rock of the first half gives way to the metallic rawness of the second, gothic all over and capable of making sure the sweat of a live show is felt no matter where you listen to it. Having seen ELLiS·D live both as part of Fat Dog and with his own band, twice this year already, I can say there are few sweatier shows than his own. If you thought Fat Dog was intense, well, you ain’t seen nothing yet. This is a real passion project that has taken on a whole life of its own.
The angular post-punk and guttural howls meet guitars that tap into indie, whilst the psychedelic build-up makes a venue like London’s Strongroom Bar feel like a perfect location for him. His upcoming London date at the Lexington in October, around the same time that Fat Dog prepare to descend on Brixton, feels like an absolute must.
The record shows new listeners the breadth and range of ELLiS·D’s taste, moving through glam rock and pure post-punk excess with each passing track in its back half. As a project it is pure and relentless; distilled live, it is stripped of the polish and pretence of studio work. It’s a scattershot display of musical brilliance that wears its hard-worn, workhorse energy on its sleeve. The lyrics bring to mind an unrestrained Jehnny Beth fronting the New York Dolls, with hook-smeared repetitions that pull you in and keep you there. It all concludes with the titanic ‘Drifting’, leaving you wanting to experience the live show for yourself.