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The Clientele/ North Sea Radio Orchestra/ Emma Tricca/ Tim Wells
London, Cargo
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Article
written by Ged M
Oct 22, 2007.
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This is a switch of location for Knom Music’s Local nights. At first Cargo seems too big, too industrial and noisy for a night that’s known for its quiet, cosy, folky nights but they’ve put out some café tables to soften the ambiance and Howard Monk is on hand to demand a relief from the ‘curse of Shoreditch’ (talking shit while artists play) with a bit of Lancashire plain-speak. The evening starts with spoken word; I arrive for Tim Wells, an East End performance poet (the Bard of Bermondsey!) whose material switches a little clumsily from observational comedy to wordsmithery but hits the jackpot with a great tale of life in the cubicles called ‘Office Politics’. Then Emma Tricca plays a delicate, filigreed folk that’s straight out of Laurel Canyon and reminds you a lot of Joni Mitchell in the quietly assured way she picks out a gossamer melody line on her guitar.
The stage fills with the North Sea Radio Orchestra, with their unique mix of classical, post-rock and folk musics. It seems to shift between poles; sometimes it’s just acoustic guitar or piano with a tiny focus point, sometimes all 8 of them (the ‘orchestra’ tonight) are combining to create something both powerful and lush. They emphasise the classicism of their music, and reinforce their distance from the mainstream of the musics that they draw on, by using the poems of Blake and Yeats as lyrics, sung in an impressively Sandy Denny folk style. It’s formal yet free, so uncategorisable that falls straight into that category called “independent” and it has me transfixed.
The Clientele are more popular in the States than here, where their labelmates are Arcade Fire. On tonight’s turnout that may not change soon but their cult status is assured. They have a sound like few others, all shimmering and reverby guitars and warm, cotton-wool vocals, and their strong arrangements conjure atmospheres of twilight autumn melancholy. Tonight is formally an album launch for God Save The Clientele, perhaps the best collection of songs that they’ve produced so far. There are the old echoes of Love and Felt but on one song they break that mould with Alasdair Maclean’s Television-style guitar blitz which is uncharacteristically loud and brutal. It’s been two years since I last saw the Clientele and another new aspect is Alasdair’s stage patter; unceasing touring must help but he also ascribes it to learning at the feet of Steven Adams, a master of the put down; whereas in the old days it was head down and pick out a heartbreaking melody, Alasdair’s quite the entertainer these days, sidestepping calls for Strange Geometry songs with a witty rejoinder. Tonight they were playing to the converted, but the converts got a great show.
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