Kommand+Kontrol

The stage is taken up by three suited gentlemen accompanied by very heavy industrial stuff with loads of samples, lots of martial drumming and sparse vocals. The decibels were very loud for the size of the venue which forced me to stay at the back of the room as I forgot my earplugs (a love of music having damaged my hearing). Being an "English" Industrial act I wanted to like them more but I suppose they're just too heavy for me. Entertaining to watch though, with lots of energy.

K-Nitrate

Two men and two keyboards but at least they weren't using laptops...the 2 men being ex-members of Cubanate. However it wasn't until I looked at the stage that I realised the music was coming from a live act and not a DJ. Others around me didn't realize either until I pointed this out, it was all very odd as there was no live sound and a complete absence of live vocals too. I only realized they'd finished their performance and the DJ was back on due to the fact that K-Nitrate had walked off stage. Not impressed.

Deviant UK

No drums due to the kit being in an impounded car in York, post DV8.  Deviant UK are still 'poppy' and bouncy but the sound really suffered due to the missing drum kit. Not their best performance - Jay seemed subdued as did the rest of those on stage, possibly due to the lack of dynamics from Mark's drumming skills . It was a shame as I was really looking forward to seeing them as they're rapidly growing on me.

Modulate

Modulate commence their set with a cry of "We're Modulate - let's go!". They've lost the suited look they had when I saw them a few years ago; this time all were clad in black t-shirts. In some places the set reminded me of a heavier Utah Saints with the majority of the tunes not being out of place on the top floor of Slimelight, but heavier beats have been creeping onto the EBM floor too; as they have into most of the EBM scene so who can tell these days? Modulate's performance would have benefitted from visuals, the presence of an empty projector screen made the stage set up seem a tad bare. That aside I felt that there was a somewhat pointless 'cover' of Faderhead's 'Dirtygrrrls/Dirtybois'; Modulate had done a remix of this dancefloor hit therefore it wasn't a actually a cover as such but I would have preferred them to stick to their own material. 'Hard and Dirty' and 'Bass Alert' were the stand out songs for me, having heard 'Skullfuck' too often in clubs.

The audience didn't seem that inspired but it may have been a combination of the heat and lacklustre performances by the two previous bands.  The issue with this gig is that Modulate are not a 'bad' band but they're maybe not yet quite a headline act, probably needing a few more killer tracks. Maybe it is not my sort of thing but I was left wanting more from the night.