Without doubt, John Parish has had a hand in some unimpeachably excellent records: Sparklehorse's It's a Wonderful Life, Goldfrapp's Felt Mountain and, of course, the album he made with old friend Polly Harvey, Dance Hall at Louse Point. Like Harvey, he is chums with Howe Gelb, doyen of noirish jazz-country and leader of Giant Sand, with whom Parish has also worked. Less expectedly, he also produced Tracy Chapman's new Let It Rain album, by far her most involving work for years.
Music from Parish's own second album, How Animals Move, ought, at the very least, to be characterful and evocative. Yet the 10 people on stage tonight (including Portishead guitarist Adrian Utley) cannot make it interesting, although you can't help feeling churlish for thinking so. Parish is a quiet, twinkly, endearing presence but he is not really a performer, and this is not music that anyone needs to see live; even the mildly arrhythmic couple who stand up to dance to Bernadette quickly think better of it.
There are lengthy instrumental passages - pretty enough with trumpet and glockenspiel, but hardly gripping. Guitars (nine, at one point) saw, hack and strum, negotiating Ennio Morricone and John Barry territory. As with much of this kind of "imaginary soundtrack" music, the action seems to be elsewhere. It is a ponderous, dolorous, occasionally portentous business. During How Animals Move, a serious-looking man in the audience strokes his beard intently. There is a terrible feeling - as tumbleweed rolls across chiming, generic soundscapes - that Cormac McCarthy may be to blame.
Things perk up a little with the skitter and twitch of Stable Life. One of the band contributes a mournful vocal oddly reminiscent of Morrissey, which provides some much-needed heart. But then the band cover Bowie's Speed of Life for their final encore, and it is by far the night's most purposeful moment.
Parish's love of music is obvious, his talent as a facilitator and a back-room boy unquestionable. If his own music is not to seem small and self-referential by comparison, he needs to find a way to make it really sing.
