Charlie Wright's Music Lounge is a relatively small venue, bar and restaurant hidden down a side street not far from Hoxton Square and it's where we ended up on Friday night, excitedly waiting for Talk In Colour to open for Elia & The Low Tears EP launch party. Set for a 9pm stage time, Talk In Colour didn't actually begin their six-track set until just after 10pm, but were welcomed by an attentive yet shy, surprisingly maturer audience. Taking their positions on the stage, Chris Bangs – (production, laptop and cello), Kat Arney (harp), Mary Erskine (vox and keys), Nick Siddall (guitar and production) and Dave Oliver (drums) opened the set nicely with 'Candles' whose glittering, uplifting harp intro, sharp, piercing, desperately unique female vocals (alternating with softer male vocals) and organic clapping had the room enthralled within a matter of seconds.
'The Cell' followed; a plunky, brooding track that flowed freely with a lyrical sadness and vocal yearning, where again, the perfect male/female harmonies of Mary and Chris seem to cast some sort of enchanting, rooting spell on the audience who, as Mary pointed out, were all stood “in a neat line”. Then there was instrumental track 'Direct Out', an urgent, almost prog-rock performance that saw a brilliant cello performance and haunting, high pitched keys in particular. Before 'No Other' we were told by the female band members, “You have to dance to this one, in a straight line, don't break formation!” No one really danced, no one broke formation but this was one of the most uplifting and vibrant tracks evoking feelings of freedom and transcendence.
Otherworldly, experimental, kerfuffle of sound, 'Rocking Horse' followed with shrill vocals, dominating cello and rampant, consistent cymbal clashes and the band wrapped up with 'Rolling' and its breakbeat bassline, siren synths, shimmering harp and dark seductive female vocals. What stands out most about Talk In Colour besides their often dark, honest lyricism is that they've found a way to make their music a conceptual entity, where each song has its own movement and its own personality in a way that the sound becomes more of an aesthetic art form than just noise. The way the simple heartfelt instrumentals and the soaring infusion of electronic sound can stand alone and come together in such a seemingly effortless way leave you well and truly hooked. Overall, Talk In Colour are one of the most invigorating, underrated and endearing live acts I have seen this year.
Talk In Colour's website
Catch them live:
15th September – Kings Place, London UK
For more news, reviews and downloads follow The Sound Of Confusion on Facebook or Twitter
contact@thesoundofconfusion.com
No comments:
Post a Comment