A myriad of gigs to choose from tonight: I could be hot footing it to the ‘port for Le Reno Amps; clopping down to Clwb for Dent May; but instead I’ve chosen an ever-reliable LOOSE gig. Of course, the trouble with so many great things to do in one night is that the supply of music lovers is spread thin, Buffalo’s offensive sign a little too visible for the lack of people. A rave review of Midori Hirano’s new album from the national ‘bloided broadsheets is not enough to get this room packed but the night is still young and y’all are missing out cos first up is the excellent canadian band MUARENA HELENA, relocated to London and with a local lass Amy on recorder and sax. They play dreamy little lullabies about the afterlife and sausage restaurants and their songs sound like a soundtrack to running through the streets high on adventure. I’m quite stunned that they are on first, they could easily headline, bloody good start.
Whilst the Ed plays some records a lady in an amazing ramshackle outfit is surrounding herself with a bunch of her familiars in puppet and soft toy form, swiftly joined by a man in a nice hat. This turns out to be GNU AND THE SHREW. After the last band, anticipation is high, perhaps too high as the lady’s singing voice splits the crowd into lovers and haters. The haters go to the bar and continue to babble and bray whilst we try to stick with it; that’s as far as our love goes. The songs are alright, twee little ditties about dead ducks wearing trousers, but her affected voice sounds like “Absolutely” regular Morwenna Banks doing an impression of Joanna Newsome and it does grate. Her set is saved by some witty little lines about being conned by big business (“the gas board is such a fraud”) and the beautiful accompanying voice of Gnu himself.
Quietly, shyly, MIDORI HIRANO sets up her laptop and keyboard. She is Japanese, having relocated to Berlin only 5 months ago and unneccessarily apologises for her poor english. What she lacks in stage banter she makes up for in the glacial beauty of the music she plays. On the laptop is a list of effects that she picks at random, plays her keyboard through and loops them around whilst playing the melody in “piano” mode. The effect is impressively delicate, intricate like a spiderweb or lace. She explains that she has no setlist, but improvises two songs. The first is like the melting of an icicle onto water and the second artfully wraps up this image by looping the sound backwards, the secrets it has revealed being sucked back up into the glacier, quietly lying in wait for its next reveal. Wonderful. I think I made the right choice: what a fantastic night and another beautiful Loose night.
By pixieglas
