December 2024. It‘s late in the year and late in life to finally close a glaring and shameful knowledge gap. Leech is a prestigious name; well-known in the post-rock community. No wonder: This Swiss band has been making waves for almost 30 years.
Then again, I‘m not that into post-rock, and frankly, the reason why I find myself in the concert room of Zurich‘s youth centre Dynamo is not the christening of their new album, Sapperlot but mainly the support act. That‘s also a rather rare occasion. But ever since I heard Hugo Trist‘s Say It, Mean It earlier this year, I‘ve been obsessed with his future garage sound.
Hugo Trist is the brainchild of Leech’s founding member, Urs Meyer. Influenced by the sombre sounds of the 80s, Trist‘s music features a certain sadness, soulful vocals, and atmospheric synth compositions.
Janosch Troehler
How will it work on stage? And will I fall in love with Leech, too? Those questions lingered in my mind as I nipped on my small beer.
Hugo Trist did not play Say It, Mean It, and that’s one of two disappointments. The other: the gig was way too short. But well, what are you going to do with just a handful of songs out yet?
Apart from these minor complaints, Hugo Trist delivered a stunning show with a full lineup: drums, guitar, synth, and the mystical qualities of Nin Lil. The singer already contributed her stunning vocals in several recorded songs on Hugo Trist’s debut, Ready For the Fix, like Rest A While. Even De-Identify received her treatment—and it worked perfectly.
And these tracks, Rest A While and De-Identify, were definitely the highlights; the pressure and the spherical flow met and created the perfect dream-dance soundtrack.
With the live instruments, the soulful and clean sound evolved to something grittier and dirtier on stage—getting a more handcrafted rock-like vibe but neither losing the melancholic ambience nor the danceable groove. And with the disco-ball outfits and a seethrough, LED-lighted guitar, Hugo Trist was equally attractive for the eyes and ears.
Conclusion: I can’t wait to see Hugo Trist live again.
Now, it’s hard to put onto the page what Leech delivered after a convincing show by Hugo Trist. Of course, with decades of experience, you’ll expect a certain tightness, but man, nothing and no one could have prepared me for this.
The dynamics, the precision, the complexity in their purely instrumental post-rock were beyond. Time became like rubber, meaningless really, and melted away like the clocks in Dalí’s The Persistence of Memory.
I’ve seen a lot of artists without vocals perform on stage. However, it has never felt like with Leech. Maybe because there was still a quintet on stage, maybe because rock music traditionally comes with a singer and a frontman. But the musicians faded, and the music took the spotlight.
And the music became an elemental force, a wave building up in slow motion, towering higher and higher until it violently crashed over you—stripping away every thought.
The constant build-up of anticipation has a strange familiarity with electronic music—you’re awaiting the drop, trying to prepare for a shattering coming down. It was a mind-altering frenzy, archaic, dystopian and utopian.
Conclusion: Better late than never, and hopefully again.
