Two years ago when I searched Dizraeli and the Small Gods on YouTube I’d get some dicey live coverage from devoted fans and a few other more professionally shot live videos. It’s now 2014, and the band have now racked up nearly 111,000 views from their October 2012 music video ‘Never Mind’.
Now at The Fleece in Bristol I see Kate Ferris, a big voice in Dizraeli and the Small Gods going it solo for the first part of the set it makes sense what all the hype is about, as she encrafts a drafty lo fi approach to the soft drums and twinkly synths that thread around her incredible voice to make a sultry experimental set that perfectly sets off her own solo project that is Dizraeli approved. And rightfully so. “This song is about being invincible..which is basically what we all are anyway right?” she’s grins with an innate confidence in her tone, before introducing her dreamy synth thumping fairytale. She coos “I’m sorry darling, I didn’t mean to dream, of another” melodically through blue swirling smoke – yet the coos rang sharp and cut through the active crowd nicely, commanding full attention. The big finale “Touch You Now” features a repetitive loop from a toy guitar that voice mashes and turns a novelty item into a way to create an epic swooping ballad with dramatic drums thuds and her killer pipes. It will be sad to see her go, but post Dizraeli there is no doubt that she will be well received.
Disraeli and the Small Gods themselves emerge in bohemian tribal fashion, adorned in kooky random garments chanting “you vote me” that silenced the crowd all over and erupted it again into cheers for the biggest underground acoustic hip hop act of Bristol. There is a desperate urgency to Dizraeli rapping out seamlessly “I’m just young and bloody bored and summer calls” where the hip hop harmonics are put with abstract rap and choppy rock to make a brilliantly bonkers mix. Another thing I admire about Dizraeli is he stops mid way through the set to declare his support for Stonewall, a charity that openly supports the LGBT community. He rants of posters in Poland that declare the LGBT community to be wrong – it’s good to see a hip hop act not just be so supportive of the gay community but standing up for something. But it’s really in the way that the band as a whole knit, the onstage chemistry isn’t fake but altogether apparent. Later in the set there was a rapturous response to “I’m A Rebel” which encouraged a singalong chant amongst the crowd along to it’s catchy plinks and sudden attacks of electric guitar and drum assault. In the finale Kate Ferris returns once again for a rousing finale of ‘Take Me Dancing’, a suitably suave finish to a great gig from one of my favourite underrated bands. So all I can say is wake up world, Dizraeli and the Small Gods can’t stay up in Olympus forever.
Oliver Evans
Latest posts by Oliver Evans (see all)
- Unsigned City: Bristol - December 21, 2014
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- Dizraeli And The Small Gods Live @ The Fleece, Bristol – 17/10/14 - October 30, 2014
