Skip to main content

Usurper – That’s That Then

It was twenty years ago more or less today when Usurper announced themselves to the world. That was after the duo of Malcy Duff and Ali Robertson joined forces to move beyond their tenure with the rumbling behemoth that was Giant Tank to do something a whole lot quieter. Working with dismantled instruments and what looked like a table full of car boot sale detritus, Usurper mixed an array of off-kilter sound effects with goofy verbal exchanges that made for a kind of Zen art cabaret.

 

After two decades, Usurper’s Dadaist double act is pulling the plug on proceedings. To say cheerio, they have gathered the clans for That’s That Then, in which friends, conspirators and fellow travellers join forces for one last blowout.

 

“I guess Usurper died of COVID,” says Robertson of the duo’s parting. “We came out the other end of the pandemic and it didnae feel like something we wanted to continue doing.”

 

Duff concurs.

 

“I've decided to concentrate fully on my cartooning,” says the prolific creator of numerous DIY comic abstractions released on his own Missing Twin imprint. “I felt it was time to move on from Usurper and take more time at my drawing board.  

 

Usurper was sired from a desire to move on from  formulaic bombast. 

 

“It was Ali's idea to start Usurper,” remembers Duff. “We had both become bored of playing in rock bands and wanted to do something different. We dismantled all the instruments we would usually play, and tried to celebrate the sounds you might miss out in those bands...plectrums running up and down the ladders of empty guitar necks, the creaking springs on a drum pedal...taking time to listen, giving lots of space and silence to allow them to be heard...I began to picture playing a gig while walking along the street, a concert of picks in my pocket…”

 

As Robertson remembers, “At our very first show, we had nae idea what we were going to do. It was a genuine experiment.”

 

This has remained the case ever since. While Usurper may be no more, Duff and Robertson will continue to bang their own respective drums.

 

“Malcy has his comix and I have my duo with Firas Khnaisser, Off Brand, the TFEH gig series, the Giant Tank label and loads of other stuff to fill my days with,” says Robertson. “And we both play with Sonic Bothy’s Learning Space group, so we still jam with each other regularly outside of Usurper.”

 

Duff will perform “from time to time, and I’m still developing some new 'live comix' (performed comic books that I began making and performing in 2010). I feel very excited to see what we will both do next.” 

 

That’s That Then with Usurper and Friends, at Summerhall, Edinburgh, 14th October 


The List, October 2023

 

ends

 

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Losing Touch With My Mind - Psychedelia in Britain 1986-1990

DISC 1 1. THE STONE ROSES   -  Don’t Stop 2. SPACEMEN 3   -  Losing Touch With My Mind (Demo) 3. THE MODERN ART   -  Mind Train 4. 14 ICED BEARS   -  Mother Sleep 5. RED CHAIR FADEAWAY  -  Myra 6. BIFF BANG POW!   -  Five Minutes In The Life Of Greenwood Goulding 7. THE STAIRS  -  I Remember A Day 8. THE PRISONERS  -  In From The Cold 9. THE TELESCOPES   -  Everso 10. THE SEERS   -  Psych Out 11. MAGIC MUSHROOM BAND  -  You Can Be My L-S-D 12. THE HONEY SMUGGLERS  - Smokey Ice-Cream 13. THE MOONFLOWERS  -  We Dig Your Earth 14. THE SUGAR BATTLE   -  Colliding Minds 15. GOL GAPPAS   -  Albert Parker 16. PAUL ROLAND  -  In The Opium Den 17. THE THANES  -  Days Go Slowly By 18. THEE HYPNOTICS   -  Justice In Freedom (12" Version) ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Myra Mcfadyen - An Obituary

Myra McFadyen – Actress   Born January 12th 1956; died October 18th 2024   Myra McFadyen, who has died aged 68, was an actress who brought a mercurial mix of lightness and depth to her work on stage and screen. Playwright and artistic director of the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, David Greig, called McFadyen “an utterly transformative, shamanic actor who could change a room and command an audience with a blink”. Citizens’ Theatre artistic director Dominic Hill described McFadyen’s portrayal of Puck in his 2019 production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre in London as “funny, mischievous and ultimately heartbreaking.”   For many, McFadyen will be most recognisable from Mamma Mia!, the smash hit musical based around ABBA songs. McFadyen spent two years on the West End in Phyllida Lloyd’s original 1999 stage production, and was in both film offshoots. Other big screen turns included Rob Roy (1995) and Our Ladies (2019), both directed by Mi...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Passage – Hip Rebel Degenerates: Black, White and Red All Over

Prelude – The Power of Three   Fear. Power. Love. This life-and-death (un)holy trinity was the driving force and raisons d’être of The Passage, the still largely unsung Manchester band sired in what we now call the post-punk era, and who between 1978 and 1983 released four albums and a handful of singles.    Led primarily by composer Dick Witts, The Passage bridged the divide between contemporary classical composition and electronic pop as much as between the personal and the political. In the oppositional hotbed of Margaret Thatcher’s first landslide, The Passage fused agit-prop and angst, and released a song called Troops Out as a single. The song offered unequivocal support for withdrawing British troops from Northern Ireland.    They wrote Anderton’s Hall, about Greater Manchester’s born again right wing police chief, James Anderton, and, on Dark Times, rubbed Brechtian polemic up against dancefloor hedonism. On XOYO, their most commercial and potentially mo...
Post a Comment
Read more