It’s been a long time comin’; 10 years, in fact. But unlike the next line in that venerable David Crosby tune, it’s not goin’ to be a long time gone. It may well have been a decade since The Illness’s nascence but now that their debut full-length album Macrodosed has finally landed, I can assure you that once listened to it will linger long in the memory.
Just like the way that young (and old) lovers do, Macrodosed came out on Valentine’s Day. And since then the ever-evolving musical collective that is The Illness – its members conjoined by Liverpool and York and taking in several points between – has launched the album high into the North of England hemisphere. They played at The Outpost in Liverpool last night and having since travelled along the M62 the band will now appear this evening at York’s premier live music venue, The Crescent.
And true to the protean nature of their line-up, not all of those who turned out for The Illness in Liverpool have made it here tonight. And some who didn’t, have. Then to add even more to the spontaneity of the occasion some members of tonight’s band hadn’t even met before. But it is this fluid dynamic and an air of freewheeling uncertainty that adds fuel to The Illness’s creative fire.
With as many as eight musicians on the stage at any one given time, The Illness move swiftly through the gears. Into first they go with ‘Prelude’ and then up to second on ‘Championship DNA’ – which also happen to be the opening two tracks on Macrodosed – before launching the first sonic howitzer of the night in the form of the album’s lead single ‘Speedway Star.’ It comes here packed with brilliantly explosive chords and the guttural wail of guest vocalist Joe McNulty who ably assumes the position previously occupied on the studio version by revered American musician David Pajo.
McNulty repeats the trick on the ensuing ‘Descending G.’ Here he climbs into one half of the band’s double-A side, debut 12” single from 2020, replicating as he does so the vocal role once taken by former Pavement drummer Steve West. What is even more impressive is the fact that he does not appear to have sung either of these songs before, at least not in public.
The existential vibe of ‘Entropolis’ is magnified even further by the ethereal lens of Ellie Kitchener- Hughes’ voice as it floats over the song’s coda. She later joins vocal forces with Lucy Johnson as they pack a huge harmonic punch to the synth-heavy drone of the magnificent ‘Glitter Witches.’ The Illness then set sail for home with the glorious kosmische blow-out of ‘Macrodoser’, the album’s brilliant final track on which Danny Barton of local rock’n’roll outfit Cowgirl lets suitably rip on his guitar.
As launch shows go, it is a bold statement of intent that quickly reaches and then stays deep within its own powerful, rarefied orbit.
Photos: Simon Godley
More photos of The Illness at The Crescent in York.
