posted on January 1, 2018
The listing says electro folk. That’s your sort of thing, isn’t it?
It wasn’t as much folk but synth pop is also our speed. Me and the missus turned up when few others did. As much as I like the feeling of being caught up in a large crowd there is a joy to just holding hands and swaying. This weekend was one of low turnouts for good music. There were maybe 30 people there at the end. Including the support acts.
The night was put on by Ideal Surreal, a promotions group that’s been around for a few year organised by some guys who have been around forever.
Aphra
She was nice. A young woman beginning to explore ideas of growing up (with Grow Up) and media affected body image (Billboard). I’ll be interested in watching her next year to see how she changes and improves. Apparently both she and Hydra Lerna have been participants of Sonic Youths, a music development program for musicians 14-19 in the area. I’ve not attended one of their showcases but the alumni keep showing up.
Hydra Lerna
So an electronic music producer with a harp. She certainly had a #look. Drum loops on her laptop and pedals by her harp. Some tracks just vocals and harp. Others just electronics and more soft vocals. I struggled with the high pitched notes from the top quater of the harp. The sound was painful to me.
Some nice tracks. Liar combined jungle inspired beats with looped harp melodies. She has a video of it. I think my favourite was Hydra, but I wanted to like it more. A good chorus but the rest lacked the bite I want from a track about being unkillable. I had Clean Like You in my head for a while after my first draft of this article.
Meadowlark
There was a lot of stuff on the stage. Synths and a drum machine in an inverted V. Behind the performers two lines of filament bulbs. Kate McGill as lead vocals & keyboard and Dan Broadley on synth & backing vocals & guitar.
It was beautiful to watch the bulbs flash and glow in time with the soft electro pop. I kinda wished I had a recording but with such a small crowd it seemed extra rude. Not the worst people in empty space I saw this week but it was a shame. I did get this burst of photos for this experiment. ⤵️
There were a few technical issues. Ear peice malfunctions and a broken guitar. While I could listen to any track from their new album (and they played them all) I don’t think there is a recording of McGill performing Fly with only backing vocals behind her.
And while the lights were very good they did start to hurt my eyes.
I bought a poster. Matte black with a circular photo. A softly glitched birds eye view of a cloud covered forest. Like the music it has a tenderness. Not my usual choice, but a band I think I’ll find myself putting on at times.