The Fuse Festival this May was a quiet explosion of
left field talent centred around the West Yorkshire Playhouse. The eclectic range
of artists was encapsulated by this triple bill of unassuming acts, their music
orbiting the charts at some fair distance yet still so accessible and open. And
tonight there’s an air of intimate distance between the performers, seated and
scattered and happily adrift on the darkened stage, and us in the shadows and
peering in. The first act, Tunng stroll on almost apologetically,
tune up and nod cheeky hellos to the audience before slipping into some gentle
electro-folk, sinuous and star-spangled and just the thing for a warm and fading
evening. They sound a lot like Lemon Jelly – acoustic guitars threading through
samplers and drum machines embroidered with a range of found instruments, hit,
blown and rattled to charming effect. However, where Lemon Jelly stretch songs
into lengthy chill out grooves, Tunng create tracks with more dramatic narrative
and shape, playing their sweetly spaced tunes with the amused bewilderment of
five people who have turned up to rehearsal to find five hundred people sitting
in. Next comes Vashti Bunyan. After a gap of thirty-five years,
Bunyan’s second album ‘Lookaftering’ has been welcomed as one of the most tender
and striking releases of the year. Bunyan leans into the microphone and breathes
out each introduction to a song the way we’d make a wish – eyes closed, intent,
as if trying to fix in her mind the moment the words and chords came to her and
why. The songs are delicate folk, guitars, strings, piano and flute creating otherworldly
chamber pieces. Only once does the real world come crashing in: when I hear ‘Just
Another Diamond Day’ I can’t help but associate it instinctively with the mobile
phone advert it soundtracks. It’s a very personal reaction but - what a f******
shame. Adem’s album ‘Love and Other Planets’ sounds like a baroque
Coldplay – simple yet expansive choruses and a plaintive English vocal but where
Coldplay strip everything down to a rudimentary strum, strum strum, Adem’s songs
are wrapped in much more delicate arrangements, thoughtful and dreamlike, with
guitars, harmonies and a toy box full of percussion creating one of the most lovely
(and seemingly under appreciated) albums around right now. The set finds
the band sounding so much richer and bigger than on record, and strikingly, Adem’s
vocals here have an added power (at once both whimsical and sublime) in sharp
contrast to the shrinking figure he cuts slumped on a chair wriggling and writhing
as if to avoid the spotlights. Songs are punctuated by games of
musical chairs with band members springing from drum kits to accordions to keyboards,
a carousal of instruments and arrangements. It’s a performance that’s half gig
and half playtime. A quiet highlight is ‘These Lights Are Meaningful’, puzzled
yet exultant at the same time, soaring yet intimate. The set ends, almost.
Adem returns alone for an encore. One more song to send us on our way. These nights
are meaningful. Relevant sites:
http://www.adem.tv
http://www.tunng.co.uk
http://www.vashti-bunyan
Irfan Shah for Crud Magazine 2006©
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| 01/06 Morning After Girls Interview
01/06 The Roger Sisters Interview
01/06 The Spinto Band Interview
01/06 The Longcut Interview
01/06 Union of Knives Interview
01/06 7/7 July Bombings London
01/06 Adem / Tunng - Live - West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds
01/06 Beach Boys - Pet Sounds - 40th Anniversary Deluxe CD / DVD
01/06 Broken Social Scene - London Astoria
01/06 Camden Crawl 2006
01/06 Editors - LIve - Brixton Academy
01/06 Elliott Kennedy - Song Meanings
01/06 Four Day Hombre Interview
01/06 Gram Parsons - Fallen Angel DVD
01/06 Hot Chip Live - LIve - Caberte Volatire - Edinburgh
01/06 Jackson Analogue, Digital, Newcastle
01/06 Latitude Festival, Henham Park, Beccles, Suffolk
01/06 Liam Frost - Live - Cockpit, Leeds
01/06 Little Man Tate, Cockpit, Leeds
01/06 Monty Python Remastered Collection
|  | 01/06 New Pornographers / Spoon - Live - London Koko
01/06 NME Shows 2006
01/06 Orange Lights - Carling Academy, Newcastle
01/06 Protokoll - Live - Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh
01/06 Shout Out Louds - Live - Leeds, Cockpit
01/06 Airlines, Flights, Terror Plot July 2006
01/06 The National - Brixton Academy, London
01/06 Wireless Festival 2006
January 2001
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October - December 2007
January - May 2008
June-December 2008 | | |
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