Miscellaneous - London Garage, 15/6/2002

  by Julia Willis

published: 11 / 6 / 2002

intro

Despite being recently dropped by WEA, Sona Fariq prove to be on explosive form at a recent gig at the London Garage. Julia Willis finds the band making "music to break out of high-security prisons by."

"Five seconds to live - No. You can't go home" There's no point making a dash for the door. It's too late. Sona Fariq's music takes the stage and hold the crowd to ransom. The jaws of the opening riff to 'We Be on Fire' grab your consciousness and spin it down into the depths rendering you intoxicated as you listen to the fuse of La Musica burn. It whips frontman Michael Frankel up into a Shamanistic frenzy and incites the crowd to riot. Are you watching a mischievous, hedonistic demigod or a primaval emissary from Satan himself? Anything that isn't bolted down is moved, flung about or clambered on. Anything that is bolted down is either hung from or jumped from. Michael is at once a demonic fury and a sinister angel of death as he raises his hands aloft and pants in rhythm. Jumping into the violent pit, he strains at the mic-lead like a rabid hound of hell as he carves a semicircle into the crowd with his eyes blazing, before one swift movement leaping back on stage and hanging from the rafters. This is music to break out of high-security prisons by... The music defies genre. Middle-eastern, North African and Native American influences weave themselves around divinely inspired rock smelted down into the rhythmic fray as he cuts a groove into the floor dancing round in circles like an evil jester holding court with his jingle bells... "I'm on fire, tonight the night, you gonna taste my desire..." The fuse burns out and 'Drop the Bomb' explodes as microphones and guitars are dropped. The dancing stops and feedback pulls the room from its trance... You wonder if Sona Fariq have been dabbling in necromancy. You've just danced with the devil as they sold their collective soul to make music as smooth and devastating as Moroccan Gold. But you can pick yours up at the door on your way out... "Five seconds to live. Click - and I'm gone..." The photographs that accompany this article were take by Matthew D. Williams

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