The Drink – The Coming Rain

admin — Tue, 27 Oct 2015 13:37:00 +0000

Angular punk, glitchy electronic pulsing and airy vocals all combine on The Drink‘s new single The Coming Rain. The genre splicing track is the first off new album Capital and it’s as electic and spinning as anything from their debut. Indie pop hurls along under spiky riffs and is peppered with intense beats as the track zig zags oddly all over the place but remains refreshing rather than confused; strange controlled chaos. Dearbhla Minogue has said that her aim is to make perfect guitar pop, and Capital suggests that her and her band are getting close to achieving that aim.

Capital is due for release on Melodic on 13th November 2015

Haiku Salut Lamp Show at Westminster Reference Library

admin — Mon, 14 Sep 2015 11:20:00 +0000

On a Friday evening ending one of those Indian Summer September days, Westminster Reference Library was filled with people curious about discovering something new. Not necessarily through books this time. Hushed yet with a curious hum there was a sense that something a little magical could be about to begin. Looking like the eccentric living room of a crazy great aunt, lamps of all shapes and sizes dotted the stage positioned in front of Education, just left of Travel and right of Art. Gig in a library. Gig in a bloody library. My two favourite things mixing together in perfect alchemy. Gig. In. A. Library. And not only this, but a mesmerising light show, as an orchestra of charity shop lamps flash, flicker and dance in time to the music. Because this is how Haiku Salut roll.
Heavily cinematic and authentically exploratory, Haiku Salut are enigmatic to extremes. They don’t speak once. It’s dark, so there’s no audience interaction. Dressed in black the band members passed enigmatically through the shadows to swap instruments and change position, taking second place to the music at all times. Gemma, Louise and Sophie work together and almost seem to be a mouthpiece for the music that has a sense of being authentic, basal, drifting up from the ether.
Textured and sensual. theirs is a performance that challenges the rules, mixing folk, classical and electronic influences through their own emotions and drives until it is entirely original. Tensions tustle in the music, the outcome feeling balanced, like an old fashioned call and response arrangement. Each instrument, each sound, each flash and flicker feel perfectly in place, incandescent, poignant, and at ease.
Timed to the beat, not missing even a flicker of a second, the lamps added a visual element to the rapid delicate pulsation of the band’s music. It’s another dimension to an act already dripping in them. Electronic definitely, there is something in their style that also seems old fashioned – it’s probably the only band I’ve seen where three quarters of the band played the accordion, and the glockenspiel felt by far the most central instrument to proceedings. Digital deftness mingles with folk melodies and instrumental dalliances, tinkling rhythms and deliberate beats working together in a magical mix.

It’s a beautiful, contagious and inventive show that captivates and entrances in its poetic wonder, and has grown in grandeur without losing any of its intimacy. Lights, books, music – a perfect Friday night.

Evvol – Eternalism

admin — Sun, 07 Jun 2015 09:58:00 +0000

Australian-French-Irish duo Evvol release their debut album Eternalism via !K7 Records and its packed through with glacial soundscapes and tectonic shifts, delicate snowflake vocals that glow through the windpipe melodies and pounding beats evoking the Berlin dance scene in which they are immersed. Dark and brooding, scintillating and energetic, it’s a textured and pulsing collection of tunes.
[bandcamp width=350 height=470 album=421984673 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false]

trio – and so she thinks

The Drink – The Coming Rain

Haiku Salut Lamp Show at Westminster Reference Library

Evvol – Eternalism