nessymon.com

Category: Music Review

  • Shura: Live at Electric, Brixton // Review

    Shura: Live at Electric, Brixton // Review

    Shura, Live at Electric Brixton

    Shura, Live at Electric, Brixton, September 17 2015

    It’s been a little over three months since I headed to Brighton to see Shura. In that time, Aleksandra Denton and her band have been honing their set, with a never ending string of dates and festivals. In front of the 1400 punters at Electric Brixton, it’s paying dividends.

    The night was opened by Roseau and Clean Cut Kid. If my information is correct, Roseau hasn’t done that many gigs, but her electronic soul vibes fit in beautifully and Roseau proves herself to be an artist to watch. Onstage, Roseau and her band are visually striking and her use on an old style Shure 55SH microphone, (like the one Elvis used) adds a timeless edge to her set. Check out her album, it’s out now.

    Next up where Clean Cut Kid, known for ‘Vitamin C’. The Liverpool quartet play a solid set, with some great guitar work from the lead singer, who also possesses one of the finest beards I’ve seen this year. Clean Cut Kid are really good at what they do, they have a good rock grounding, layered with melodic instrumentation and vocal lines. At times, it does seem like it could be a slightly odd choice for an opener for the more electronic, Shura but they work well and your scribe would definitely go see them again.

    Shura and her three piece band take to the stage and the growth in confidence is easily seen. Shura is now also playing guitar and seems to like rocking out a bit, duelling with her guitarist. She also seems like she’s now really enjoying what she’s doing and that’s rubbing off on the crowd. For these ears though, I’d cut back on the rubbling bass a little and bring Shura’s voice a little more to the fore in the front of house music mix.

    For a hot sweaty crowd, a reworked down tempo 2Shy, provides a breather. All the tracks we know from Shura are included in tonight’s set, Kids n Stuff, Indecision, Touch, and an epic set ending ‘White Light’. It’s pretty awesome to see an artist grow in stature, and throughout the night, Shura reaffirms her importance on the music scene. The sold out Electric crowd also bear witness to rather awesome, sometimes blindly beautiful lighting.

    Shura is obviously still working on different mixes and structure of songs, which versions make it to an album and which stay only in a live format remains to be seen. Shura, herself, is now playing guitar and dancing around the stage. Her set has grown at an immense rate since last time. This bodes extremely well for the future. I wonder what size venue she’ll play next?

  • Review // Hannah Schneider // Live at St Pancras Old Church, London

    Review // Hannah Schneider // Live at St Pancras Old Church, London

    HannahSchneider-StPancrasOldChurch - nessymon.com

    Hannah Schneider, St Pancras Old Church, London, June 11 2015

    St Pancras Old Church always looks beautiful, whether it be in the depths of winter and you’re lining up in the cold outside or, if like today, it’s a beautiful summer’s evening. But the fading orange light during the summer gives a very different vibe to the full darkness illuminated only with street lamps of winter.

    Inside, the light spills across the empty floor. All the chairs have been removed except for some placed along the walls and some lit candles add to the vibe. People are chatting and smoking outside in the sunshine but when Hannah Schneider takes to the stage / altar, they quickly pile in.

    Hannah is on tour in support of her third album, ‘Red Lines‘, her first to get a proper release in the UK and this is final date of her tour. Red Lines is a well produced album, with full sounding pop songs. Tonight, however, Hannah is playing solo using 2 vocal microphones, a keyboard and enough loop and effects pedals that many guitarists would kill for.

    When an album sounds as lush as Red Lines, it can be hard to even come close to that sound. Schneider cleverly builds each song with layers of samples and vocals, giving new life to the songs. Watching Hannah piece each song together is hypnotic and by the end of the opening track ‘For The Trees’, there are murmurs from the attentive audience noting just how good Schneider is.

    Schneider easily makes friends with the crowd with her in between song banter. She describes ‘Dreaming Kind’ as a football anthem for sensitive types. She claims that she’s touring solo due to the economic crisis. Then as she produces an electric ukulele to play ‘Life is Easy’, she tells of how her friends asked why she couldn’t just play a guitar ‘like a normal person’, which raises a laugh.

    She finishes off her set with two tracks from her self titled first album. When the bass kicks in in ‘This is Goodbye’, it makes a security light rattle in the fourth century church. ‘Raindrops’, the final song of the evening fills the holy place with beats, bass sounds and layered harmonised vocals, everything perfectly in place, finished off with the addition of a stylophone.

    A really good performance from Hannah, a nice introduction to her catalogue of music and going on the audience reaction, new fans gained. If anything, she should have had a longer set. But you know the saying ‘Leave them wanting more’, yeap, she did that.

  • Diary // Shura – Live at Bleach, Brighton // Jun 2 2015

    Diary // Shura – Live at Bleach, Brighton // Jun 2 2015

    Shura In Bleach Brighton photo © nessymon.com

    Stardate 02062015, time 0645, it’s the day you wake up and remember you’ve bought tickets to a gig in Brighton. Me and my buddy Alex had purchased tickets to go see Shura.

    I’ve been playing Shura for a while now on the radio and Alex raved about her Village Underground gig in March so there was no Indecision on our part to get tickets. Yes, I know that was a terrible pun. Plus, attendees of these couple of dates around the UK would also get their mitts on some free limited edition vinyl of a Warpaint-Steez remix of 2Shy, pressed on one side only. #YummyVinyl

    So working in London, myself and Alex legged it out of the office at 5.15 and got the Gatwick Express to Brighton, which I have to say, was a quite relaxing journey, fuelled by music discussion and goss. We arrive in Brighton, find the venue and find an eaterie.

    We go to the venue, get our hands on our vinyl and pop out to say hi to Shura and get our vinyl signed (fangirl or wha?). We head back upstairs, hopefully proving we’re not psychos and wait for the show to begin.

    It’s a small venue, maybe 200 people in there. The band have added an extra guitarist for live duties. The short eight song set starts with ‘Figure it Out’.

    It’s Shura’s first time playing in Brighton and the crowd react well to the opening notes of ‘2Shy’, ‘Indecision’ and ‘Touch’ but for some reason never completely let loose.

    In reality, these shows are probably good run throughs for festival season and set lists change and evolve. Included in today’s is a Fine Young Cannibal Cover, She Drives Me Crazy, while a good cover, if someone is driving you crazy, you need a little more Grr!

    Honourable mention must go to the guitar at the end of the second track of the night, ‘Kids n’ Stuff’, if Top Gun needed a new piece of music for when the plane takes off the runway and Tom Cruise is on his motorcycle, well, this is it. This leads really nicely into ‘Indecision’.

    Shura’s sound is definitely eighties throwback, with Ms Janet Jackson sprinkling her fairydust over everything. But it’s when the last song of the night kicks in, I realise what was slightly lacking. A few more uptempo tracks.

    When people go to to gigs they want to dance and ‘White Light’ definitely makes you want to do that. (I might be wrong as I recall the evening but there could have been a Madonna sample thrown in to the live mix there). Shura is a new artist and it’s fascinating to see artists change and evolve in the time before they even get to release an album and then between a first and second album. ‘White Light’ seems to be the sound of an artist maturing, getting to know where they want to go, how to manipulate and create to be exactly where they want to be. It works, it’s bloody great live. The following night it got it’s debut on Annie Mac on BBC1.

    Good night’s entertainment, if Shura keeps producing stuff like this, she’ll have a decent career.

  • Sofar Sounds // Seven Sisters, London, February 19th 2015

    Sofar Sounds // Seven Sisters, London, February 19th 2015

    TheMigrant feature
    The Migrant at Sofar Sounds London

    Sofar Sounds // Seven Sisters, London, February 19th 2015
    Featuring Whilk and Misky, The Migrant, Norma Jean Martine.

    It’s Thursday night, I’ve just finished work and stayed a few minutes extra so I can charge up my phone. It’s the kind of night you need to have your phone charged. I’m off to a Sofar Sounds gig in Seven Sisters in North London. I’m not quite sure where I’ll end up, so having Google Maps handy makes you realise why smartphones were invented.

    This is my second Sofar Sounds gig and this time round, myself and my companion make sure we’re there early. Last time, it was jammers and we had creaks in our necks trying to get get a peek of who was playing. We know these gigs are in someone’s living room, last time it was in a converted warehouse, so we get a few goodies along the way. We arrive with the help of our trusty phones and realise that we got the timing spot on and a place on a couch in front of the stage area.

    A little investigation tells us that this seems to be the third of three nights in Seven Sisters, with three acts on the bill.

    WhilkandMiskyThe night starts off with Whilk and Misky who play their version of Portishead’s Glory Box. I was delighted to see these guys, I had played a couple of tracks on The London Ear but this was the first opportunity to see them live.

    They’re an interesting pair with one half using 2 Ableton launchpads, a Livid Elements controller and a plethora of keyboards and gadgets to trigger beats and loops while the other plays an acoustic and electric guitar, an old fashioned silver mic (perhaps a Shure Super 55 fact fans) and has a controller for some really great vocal effects and reverbs on the singer’s gravelled voice.

    I really like their sound, which I’ve dubbed ElectroCowboy, they combine contemporary sounds and beats with classic country/americana rock vocals. If they played for another two hours, I wouldn’t have moved from my seat. Really impressed, I want to see more.

    Up next was The Migrant, a singer songwriter from Denmark, who has just released a new album ‘Flood’. Throughout his set, The Migrant tells little anecdotes, a tale about goats introduces his song ‘Climbers’. His sound is rooted in Folk/Americana and The Migrant possesses a pure tone to his voice which keeps you intrigued.

    Known to his friends as Bjarke, The Migrant tells of how we always think foreign languages sound exotic but he says he think Danish sounds like ‘you are speaking with potatoes in your mouth’. That didn’t stop the assembled crowd from attempting to sing in The Migrant’s native tongue. Really good set, the time flew by, it seemed too short.

    Being so far north of the river Thames has it’s disadvantages on a skool night, like having to get home so you can get up the following morning for work. Unfortunately tonight, I was a victim of having to head to South East London. The time ticking on meant I only got to see Norma Jean Martine perform one song.

    Norma Jean sang and played keys while she was accompanied by two players, one on guitar and one on cajon and percussion. While one song isn’t enough to decide what I thought, it was enough for me to know I’ll like to hear more of her music.

    Sofar Sounds gigs are ‘secret’ with the exact address only begin disclosed the day before the event. They started in London but are now in over 100 cities worldwide and going on the two gigs I’ve been to, it’s easy to see why.

    Tonight’s show was in another converted warehouse space, these are interesting places where people live and they so kindly let us invade. You never know who is going to be on the bill and there are enough people who want to hear music in a non chatty environment to make these evenings relaxing, enjoyable and refreshing. Now, if only I could get to a Sofar Sounds gig that was close to home.