The Chap // 15/5/10

A perpetual chain of pop music clichés, extracted from the original context, processed by the London/Berlin-based quartet and vividly performed for your entertainment – is what you may witness at The Chap gig.

Yet The Chap isn’t the kind of a band that will suddenly break into an impro – every single movement they make and every sound they utter is all a part of a well rehearsed performance staged with a mathematical precision, even if it makes no sense, as at most times it absolutely doesn’t.

Such performance can be both hideous and sublime but whether you like it or not you’ll be chanting ‘Super Super’ after a couple of tracks and devotedly learning to dance to a song that seems to consist entirely of bridges to a chorus that never happens.

And while the critics struggle to classify The Chap as art-rock, Dadaist disco or sweat pop (?), you’ll pretty soon find that this band defines its own genre – seemingly energetic but immaculately staged, seemingly artistic but ridiculing themselves, shouting:

”This is a proper music for real folk and not the artistic shit!”

The latter did not make much sense to a few Wesley Eisold’s fans shuffling around in the audience, but that’s a critique to the venue only who managed to book Cold Cave and The Chap for one stage, mixing post-hardcore synthpop and the pythonesque humor.