Trademark @
The Victoria Inn, 12 Midland Place, Derby
17/06/05
Support: DR COCACOLA MCDONALDS, ROBOCHRIST, THE DEATH OF ARTISTS £3 Entry
Intro:
The kit was as I had seen on the photos on their website but for those interested; there was a Studio Electronics Rack Synth ATC-1, Novation A-station, Clavia - Nord Micro Modular, Oberheim OB-12, Korg MS 2000 Keys, Roland Juno, Yamaha DX-9, a few controller keyboards and a few more rack mount goodies.
The set began with an empty stage and Vocoder intro "We are Trademark" as per the mighty Kraftwerk's Die Mensch Machine intro, then the music began and the band walked on stage dressed in white lab coats which had multi coloured LED lights down each arm - cool………
The set comprised of 6 tracks, all of which were vocal Synthpop, loosely in the style of Pet shop Boys / Human League / Soft Cell but not a straight 80's revival and often with harder edged 'club' beats.
With only one exception (Sine Love), all the tracks were high energy dance orientated pieces and were a mix of tracks from the new album "Want More" and new material which is likely be on the next Trademark album that they are recording at the moment.
(See opposite for the confirmed set list)
All members seemed confident throughout & there were no technical bloopers - everything went fine & the fairly small (20 max) audience seemed to be suitably impressed. Mid show, the band ran off stage and returned, dressed in black & during one of the tracks ( I think it was Square Wave Anger ) Oli (the lead singer) walked into the audience like a zombie - which was a bit unexpected! At least 4 or 5 people were taking photos or filming the gig throughout
Although I have only recently discovered the band I already have a firm favourite track, the fantastic synth ballad, 'Sine Love', and they played it towards the end of the set. This was the only slow track of the night but very uplifting and melodic
The set ended with the band holding up large black lit up boxes with the bands 'trademark' (no pun intended) Plug design - which looked pretty futuristic.
As it was a small gig, I was able to chat to the band at the end and get their autographs & chat about Synths and their influences - which was great. They all seem to enjoy the popular classic Synthpop electronic bands, Depeche Mode, Kraftwerk & Pet shop boys more than the more experimental & instrumental 'Tangerine Dream' for example.
Having spent almost 30 years listening to Electronica I would say Trademark are fairly unique, it's Synth-pop for the modern age, 'commercial' but not 'too' commercial, they are techno/electro enough to appeal to Kraftwerk fans but accessible enough to appeal to the masses. You can easily imagine that in a bigger venue with the same ideas but a more expensive set, the results would be a visual treat! The stills from when they supported the Human League suggest that too
Hopefully this could be the start of something big and it was a privilege to be there at one of the smaller gigs.
Review copyright by Mat Mckenzie www.hypnoticbeats.co.uk
I have checked with Trademark themselves & the confirmed set list was:-
1. Over and over again
2. Interim
3. So Agitated
4. Square Wave Anger
5. Sine Love
6. Come to Love