Cloud Control @ Scala, 12th October 2011

admin — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 10:44:41 +0000

It was clear from the outset that this wasn’t going to be the folk-speckled love-fest I thought it would be. In fact, Cloud Control’s gig at Scala showed them in a whole new light. It revealed their dark side: seductive, compelling, arcane – and utterly unexpected.
Before the start of the gig, the stage was a haze of red. As the lights changed four dark figures emerged, pulsing with charisma. Frontman Alister Wright stood hooded and brooding while keyboardist Heidi Lenffer slinked silently into place. Given that Bliss Release is essentially the soundtrack to a woodland jaunt on a sun-dappled day, this couldn’t have been further from what I’d expected.
The Aussie quartet open with Meditation Song #2: a beautiful a-capella start that churns waves of enthusiasm through the room. But as the tambourine of Gold Canary becomes the beat under Alister’s spoken poetry; as There’s Nothing in the Water takes on a frantic tone; as the lyrics of Ghost Story are chanted beneath a single spotlight, something darker seems to rear its head.
The band themselves are mesmerising. While Alister stands rigidly, facing the crowd with a drugged-up-rockstar stare, Heidi sways, swinging her hair hypnotically. The disparity between the two is brilliant: it lends their songs a sense of unhingedness, a wide-eyed exhilaration that stays with you for days afterwards.
The final encore, a sunny cover of There She Goes, released so much tension that the crowd exhaled as one. From the vantage point of the stairs, looking out over the main floor, this decompression was striking. The sight 200 people sinking simultaneously was testament to the band’s power.
Despite their flaws, despite the vague feel of hipsterism, despite their slightly derivative influences, the sheer genius of this gig – note-perfect, intense, enthralling – puts Cloud Control way beyond reproach. This is a band who know darkness – and know how to use it.

Stornaway @ Somerset House, 9 July 2011

admin — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 10:50:34 +0000

Stornaway

Cloud Control

Words by Becky Glass
Photos by Anika Oehme

In the courtyard of Somerset House, overlooked by history, politics and a lazy Union Jack flag, another Summer Series evening went fabulously well on 9 July.

Award-winning Aussies Cloud Control got things off to a dynamic start. Despite an initial guitar malfunction, the drum-beat fanfares, stirring harmonies and formidable tambourine of ‘Gold Canary’, ‘There’s Nothing In The Water’ and ‘This Is What I Said’ got feet tapping and heads nodding without trouble.

Framed by blue sky, glowing rooftops and seagulls above the peaked stage, even those less inclined to enjoy the quirky foursome looked charmed at the end of the set.
Surroundings like these – not to mention the three thousand-strong crowd – would be intimidating by anyone’s standards. But, as soon as Stornoway took to the stage, frontman Brian Briggs’s clear, earnest vocals and the band’s dappled layers of sound had a spectacular effect, lighting up the space with pure enthusiasm.

It becomes clear that Stornoway have a real passion for their music, as the soft, poignant openings of ‘Fuel Up’ and ‘The Coldharbour Road’ quickly, enthusiastically plunge into soaring choruses backed by the entire crowd, and as new songs ‘When You Touch Down From Outer Space’ and ‘The Bigger Picture’ are far from tentative performances, carrying the same buzz as familiar ones.
The sound of every voice belting the encore, ‘Long Distance Lullaby’ and ‘Zorbing’, left Briggs and the other band members looking a little overwhelmed. But it’s that interaction between the layers of instruments and the roaring crowd that is exceptional: an ability to use the audience as part of their music, rather than as a backing track.

These songs exist in a rare balance – they’re personal, introspective and entirely uplifting all at once. It comes as no surprise that theirs is an utterly feelgood show, completely worthy of the stunning setting.

Every bit as comfortable in larger venues as in small, their transcendent moments were as much in crowd choruses as in solos. But above all, their talent lies in the fluid way they switch between the two – which places them firmly ahead of their more derivative, less passionate nu-folk rivals.

cloud control – and so she thinks

Cloud Control @ Scala, 12th October 2011

Stornaway @ Somerset House, 9 July 2011