Recoil is a new addition to SOIWT; posts offering snap-thoughts on a recent gig. In the best SOIWT traditions, these will be brief, unstructured, impromptu, unprofessional and generally not a review, followed by a chance to inspect the band
After Cloud Boat‘s brief set last night, supporting Theme Park (more on them in a later post) at Madame JoJo’s White Heat night, I just gasped. For here had been a London band that staggered: an shy duo of scruffy males when they initially took to the stage, they had emerged as steerers of a pioneering sonic ship, the soundtrackers of dreams, the pair that dared to be different. And that was what underpinned their performance, and their music: a defiance of the rules, and a brave (and it really is brave) determination to make their own weird sound, and not follow the textbook.
That sound is tough to describe in plain old words; it’s like trying to write a magic spell as a maths equation. But I’ll try: these were sprawling and epic pop songs: down-tempo broods that would suddenly climb into full catatonia. They were played on guitars but supported by electronica and, unexpectedly at the heart of most things, what seemed a soulful R’n'B beat; the singer, Tom, zigzagged from stuporous baritones to eye-closing falsettos; the music climbed, echoed, pulsed and piqued as if its own being, one that these two heroic musicians could barely control.
As I watched it, one thought above all dogged me: how the hell do you write this stuff? These aren’t songs that start around a riff someone thought of, or based on hastily scribbled lyrics. I have zero idea what Cloud Boat’s creative process is like, and I don’t want to know – for therein lies the magic.
brilliant gig!!!! they were so good!