Brighton’s art-rock five-piece Squid are a strange case all round: their recent album Cowards is nothing short of brilliant, and received substantial critical acclaim upon its release, yet only reached number 92 in the Official Albums Chart in its first week of sales. After their debut Bright Green Field peaked at number five, with its follow-up O Monolith reaching number eight, it seemed that public interest in Squid was waning. Few shows on their tour in support of Cowards have sold out, and it may seem that the band are now doomed to playing half-sold rooms and proving in the process that no amount of BBC 6 Music A-list plays can directly lead to general popularity. However, their Manchester stop at O2 Ritz was a testament to the band’s continuing appeal, showing no signs that their quality or their eminence is decreasing.
Supporting Squid with a 45-minute opening set was Martha Skye Murphy, South London’s most interesting avant-garde singer-songwriter. Although her intimately slow, faintly eerie songs are more suited to London’s Windmill or Moth Club scenes than Manchester’s O2 Ritz, it truly is amazing what Murphy can do armed only with a Nord Stage keyboard, her distinctive vocals and notably abstract lyricism. As her set progressed, every note sung seemed to spark a moment of catharsis for Murphy, despite the chatter of the crowd that occasionally drowned her out.
Squid’s own set opened in the same way as Cowards does. Lead single ‘Crispy Skin’ was followed by ‘Building 650’, before ‘Blood on the Boulders’ began its gradual climb to instrumental explosion. As the band’s vocalist and drummer Ollie Judge began to chant “we return to the scene”, many members of the crowd were left stunned by the song’s crescendo, although few appeared to be familiar with this new material. “We’re going to be playing a lot of the new album, so apologies if you haven’t heard it”, Judge stated while introducing ‘Fieldworks’ later in the set: his promise materialised in the performance of seven of the album’s nine tracks, which allowed Squid to take their audience on the journey that is Cowards throughout the set.
In line with the new directions and unsettling experimentation of Cowards, older fan favourites were given fresh, original dimensions. ‘G.S.K.’, a highlight from the band’s debut album, was accompanied by an avant-garde interlude that led into ‘Swing (In a Dream)’. The most impressive element of Squid’s live show was their inclusion of the brass which features heavily on Cowards, which was incorporated into tracks both old and new thanks to bassist Laurie Nankivell. Listening to the album, it is difficult to envision many of its components translating with the same effects live, yet the band continuously managed to prove any doubters wrong.
‘Undergrowth’ is a mind-blowing song live, conveying an intense sense of paranoia through its lyrics and displaying dynamic shifts musically. ‘The Blades’, also taken from O Monolith, continued in a similar vein before the title track of Cowards closed the main portion of the band’s set on a gentler foot.
Squid’s encore opened with another inventive interlude, this time interpolating and transforming the melodies of ‘Crispy Skin’. ‘Narrator’ followed, and it seemed that this was the moment the crowd had been waiting for: even the invigorating intensity of ‘G.S.K.’ and ‘Undergrowth’ hadn’t inspired much movement, but chaos erupted in the audience as Judge began the song’s chant of “I play my part”. On Bright Green Field, Martha Skye Murphy contributes backing vocals for the track, and it seemed like a missed opportunity that she did not join the band onstage, despite opening the night with a set of her own. Nonetheless, ‘Narrator’ remained breathtakingly electrifying, and as Judge raised his arms in triumph it became apparent that the band, too, had been waiting for its performance.
Drawing their performance to a close with the royal flourish of ‘Well Met (Fingers Through the Fence)’ allowed the show to come full circle, returning to the influence of brass and ending the set with the same intricate moment of finality that concludes Cowards. Despite notable omissions from the setlist, such as Cowards highlight ‘Showtime!’, the band’s 90 minutes on stage was consistently impressive. The most fascinating element of Squid has always been, and will always be, the combination of vocals and drums displayed by Ollie Judge, which never fails to impress. Overall, the set at O2 Ritz introduced original ideas and evolutionary innovation not only to their older material, but also to the way their live show works, and every stunt they pulled seemed to pull off. This is a band that continue to invent, and deserve to be recognised as one of the country’s most expansive and imaginative.
