January 22, 2001

Olympic Lifts: London Aldgate East Arts Cafe

New ex-indie Britrap types get all Beastie Boys on our East London asses...

Half of this Belfast six-piece used to be in Tunic, a very indie band that was allergic to tunes and permanently stuck on the toilet venue circuit. They've spent the past three years acquainting themselves with melodies and invested in a sampler and some decks and they're having a whale of a time. Suited and booted, two rappers rush about as guitars collide with the pile-up of beats and scratches.

Olympic Lifts' live sound is far from pretty, but it's very engaging. A demo tape doing the rounds reveals them to share the ho-hum-shake-your-bum groove of De La Soul propelled by dynamic guitars; on stage you get an entertaining rap-rock stew. 'Evil Rock Ears', for example, loses its subtleties and becomes much more temperamental although the energy and joie de vivre of the set is infectious

They sound like the Beastie Boys on a small budget, they all wear matching ties decorated with the silhouette of Manhattan and their crazed party atmosphere gets the assembled indie kids dancing. There aren't in fact that many kids present as everyone else in town appears to have gone to see The Magnetic Fields, but it's not difficult to guess who had the better time.

With a debut single lined up for Bungalow, there will be plenty more tuning in to the Olympic Lifts in the near future.

Ben Clancy

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