My brother went to the Leeds festival a few weeks back. On the Friday night after the triumphant return of The Libertines he had the choice of staying for main stage headliners Arcade Fire or seeing Pendulum. As the crowd inexplicably thinned out he was able to quite easily walk towards the front of the stage. After hearing reports about the relatively poor turnout for Arcade Fire’s set, when he came home I asked if this had ruined what should have been a very special gig. “Not at all” he replied. “They were up against Pendulum so at least you knew that’s where all the dickheads would be."
I’ve tried for ages to work out the appeal of Pendulum. I’ve now reached the conclusion that people are indeed, dickheads. The Island claims to be “a visceral attack of grinding beats and venomous synths”. In reality it’s the kind of euro-pop that made everyone vomit in the early 90s with the bass turned up. The singer meanders around a directionless tune with all the skill and style of Stephen Hawking’s speech synthesiser before we are forced to endure a riff that jingle writers would throw away for being too ‘in your face’.
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You could argue that this was primal, instinctive music if it had any sense of soul in it. However everything about it is so maddeningly precise and meticulous that we are left with no room to breathe within the song. As a result it’s impossible to connect to emotionally anymore than you could a ring tone or an alarm buzzing.
Pendulum online
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