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Review: Black Country, New Road, Rough Trade
Occasionally, bands emerge that are genuinely exciting, edgy, unsettling and comforting all at once: Black Country, New Road are the next incarnation of a bloodline stretching back to the late 60’s and Robert Fripp’s King Crimson.
Taking to a cramped Rough Trade stage, barely large enough for the seven-piece, Black Country, New Road treat a crowded room to their bizarre proggy indie rock, replete with violin and saxophones howling and screeching over their angular guitar backdrop. The band generates a truly novel sound: of course, jazz-rock is a tried and tested formula harking back to the 70’s, but not this kind of jazz with that kind of rock. Musically and visually Black Country, New Road have carved out their own space; think of a child begotten from a union between the Ezra Collective and Joy Division.
The musicianship was top-notch, especially drummer Charlie offering solid timekeeping and astonishing fills allowing the other band members space and dimensions to impress. Isaac’s vocals soared above the sonic wall, delivering sermons for the damned, giving way to spine-chilling sax (Lewis) and highly wired violin (Georgia). The sax-violin pairing is an inspired choice, giving the band a refreshingly avant-garde art-school edge that transfixes the room as they duel with each other. Perhaps it’s because of the small stage, but the band remain rooted in their own limited space, adding to the highly wired, claustrophobic yet expansive sound space.
is needed now More than ever
Athens, France lurches from Ian Curtis-intensity to a discordant jazz crescendo via a subtle Phoebe Bridgers reference (top marks if you spotted it), and there’s barely a pause in their hour-long set as outros blend into new pieces. The audience is rapt in their attention, and so intense and challenging is their performance, it’s hard to be anything but captivated. Recent single Sunglasses, which is responsible for a lot of the buzz around the band, jams in on a soft indie riff before erupting into a cacophony; the lyrics tackling modernity, British exceptionalism and the contemporary trappings of wealth.
With only a few songs out, there’s no music for sale on the merch stand, but the buzz these mavericks have created around their weird, wonderful songs is enough to tide fans over until they’re next in town to melt some faces.
Emerging out onto the street after the gig, the concert-goers were clearly impressed, having witnessed the emergence of a bright new bud on the grand oak tree of British music. For the foreseeable future, expect to be lead down New Roads by these rising stars.
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