18th September 2025
I read an article a few weeks ago (I can’t remember where) that said live music was dead.
If you look into events over the last year or so, the ticket fiasco that saw many Oasis fans paying extortionate prices through Ticketmaster or Adele’s ten day run of events in Munich where the focus seemed to be more about selling merch, and enormous LED walls so fans could upload selfies, than actually being about the music.
Closer to home, this week, a police report stated that if the travel chaos after the Justin Timberlake show at Chelmsford Racecourse was allowed to happen again, people might die!
So on the face of it, live music might well be dead. It certainly seems that way for commercial music.
The biggest artists and event promoters are still desperately trying to claw back lost pandemic revenue by doing as large a show as possible, selling tickets that only a few can afford. Promoting the dream of immersive experiences to make up for the fact that the real fans are priced out and all that’s left – the mildly interested with cash to spare – require wall to wall instagramibility to paint over the cracks that they’re more there to be seen than they are to listen.
But that’s commercial music. What about the grassroots scene? Is it still possible for a small promoter to collaborate with a new venue and showcase local live musicians in a way that lets the music, the art, the sound speak for itself?
The simple answer is yes. Yes it can. And it did.Â
Those who attended Chelmsford’s Electronic Music Open Mic (or EMOM Chelmsford for short) at Mettle Works on Friday got to experience exactly that. Everything came together as if it was always meant to be.
The raw aesthetic of The Trap matched the rawness of the talent on the bill. It’s unashamed boldness, robust features, solid brick walls and max security installations gave a sense of rigidity and place. There’s no temporary structures here.
And just as well because the power that was transferred from our Delta Max soundsystem would have worked every bolt, screw and nut free in minutes and brought the whole thing crashing down.
And if The Trap provided the perfect setting, an industrial shrine for electronic music, the artists provided the perfect soundtrack. Almost as if they wrote their scores with the space in mind. They responded to the surroundings, all bringing their A Game. The ensemble that EMOM pulled together was nothing short of pure fire.Â
I’ve been to a number of past Chelmsford EMOMs, I’ve performed at a few of them myself, but never have I witnessed a night of such quality. And I’m not just talking grassroots quality, this was top level quality. Any one of these performances wouldn’t have felt out of place on any highly anticipated electronic music bill.
Dialectic kicked us off in dreamy fashion with delay drenched synth lines over dubby bass. Rawjamzfirat blended chicago house with early South London dubstep flavours. PGRM paired electro with acid and synth pop with transcendental soundscapes.
To follow we had dark apocalyptic premonitions that were unmistakably Hell Feeder. We descended further into the realms of noise with the experimental onslaught from Diacritical Mark featuring an AV show from White Noise Winter.
Bada Duum returned us to rhythm with a set of latin inspired drum patterns fused with pounding beats, reminiscent of Shackleton’s finest works. Closing out the night DA22A treated us to an extended improvised set of no nonsense techno.
Of course, no set of performances are complete without an audience. The congregation was no half arsed gathering of people who came along just for the social media points. This was a collection of musical adventurists who found their way to Mettle Works on the hunt for music they’d never heard before. A chance to witness the cutting edge of the local electronic music scene. And they didn’t leave disappointed.
So to summarise, I return back to the first line of this article. To some, live music may seem dead. To me, and everyone that witnessed EMOM on Friday, it’s very much alive and, not just well, it’s kicking the shit out of anyone that dares to suggest otherwise!
For those who couldn’t join us in person, EMOM Chelmsford was live streamed. You can watch the recordings below…
To find out what more events we’ve got coming up, check out our Music page
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Words by Andrew Wright
Photos by James Elcome and Andrew Wright
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