Live Review

Mr Fogg – Bar Academy, Islington, London

• 18th Aug 2010

Mr Fogg was an absolute delight to behold.

With little knowledge of the artist further than reading through a press release, Mr Fogg was pretty much exactly what I expected him to be from what i’d garnered from his bio, this time he was fore-going the backing of his band and it was just him up there with a Mac laptop, sampler, drum machine, synth and a projector, producing a sound and an experience that could almost be vanguard if the experimentalism wasn’t tinged with such melodic tones.

His performance was succinct and faultless, as jerky electronic percussional beats give over to something verging on soaring power-pop, but it never teeters over the edge into over-indulgence or pastiche, particularly as the whole thing is reigned in by the unperfect vocals that give the machine music a human focus.

But given the opening support slot of the evening, barely more than a handfull of people were mingling about, the fans of new-wave headliners, China Crisis, that had got to the venue early were not daring to cross the invisible barrier and get too close to the stage, most prefering the safe vantage point of the bar.

It was just a shame that there weren’t more people there to bear witness to Mr Fogg’s uplifting and engaging, one man fiddly little electronics show.