There was no prologue to Editors’ concert at Troxy last night. No nostalgic mashup of hits in the background as musicians found their place on stage. In a newly minted line-up with Ivor Novello-winner Benjamin John Power, the band erupted into the room with a thunderous new sound that ripped right through the hum of audience anticipation.
It was the sound of electronic body music and Editor’s latest album, EBM, their seventh. Released back in October, the name packs two acronyms into one, not just the genre of music but also nodding to the fruitful partnership between Editors and Blanck Mass (a moniker for Power, formerly one half of the band Fuck Buttons).
Power joined Editors, who formed in Birmingham in 2005, as a full-time member last year after they worked together on previous album Violence in 2018. While last night’s concert may have looked like frontman Tom Smith’s party, it was Power’s looming silhouette pulling the strings in the background. He’s the magician behind the band’s new bangers. Songs recorded with him, Smith says, are “immediate and in your face.”
Editors are among several indie stalwarts looking to flirt with a more club-ready (read: European) sound. Bands like The Strokes or The Killers have recently released records that straddle the line between rock and dance – perhaps they really missed clubbing during lockdown, or maybe they just have EU-envy.
Still, few bands could have matched the electricity in last night’s opening one-two punch of Heart Attack and Strawberry Lemonade: hits off the new album which, rendered live, became full scale musical odysseys. At Troxy’s, the eerie electronica on tracks such as Strange Intimacy brought an all-engulfing, epic gravitas. Power’s percolating beats felt gleefully analogue, simulating the rough and ready parties of a reunified Berlin.
Some moments felt knowingly lifted from the new wave canon. The synth hook on Kiss recalled that of Depeche Mode’s Enjoy The Silence, reverberating around a room once used as a training school for the London Opera Centre. Not since U2’s Zooropa in 1993 has techno blended so convincingly with rock. Until Arctic Monkeys work with Underworld or The Wombats collaborate with Daniel Avery, Editors will remain unmatched in their pursuit of sonic innovation.
Smith gave a passionate performance, his nimble body flapping like a frustrated contortionist. His voice never faltered, his delivery strong and his tone moody without affectation. Once named the British singer with the highest vocal range, it was his gusto, not his choral gymnastics, that really took charge last night. Editors were all the better for it.
