Sunday. August 28, 2016
The Newport Hotel
For dulcet tones and beats that sound like raindrops on the water’s surface I turn to Japanese Wallpaper every time. To satisfy this gentle craving I took myself down to the final show of his tour in Fremantle last Sunday night.
Opening up the night at The Newport was shoe-gazey, ‘post-rock boys’ Lanark who set us at a nice pace. They all had seriously pained expressions as they played. To compliment the strong progressions or to artistically connect with their sound, I’m not sure, but it set a very masculine sense of suffering. Their visuals were a strange three part German arthouse film of funny robot ballerinas spinning and dancing across vast plains. What we heard was what we could see.
After our time in a levitated space, a young girl emerged from the black and holy HELL. All I want to say is WOW, so that I can leave it up to yourselves to try and discover her in your own way, but there is just so much more to be said about E^ST.
I’d been creating a mental to-do list and was registering my weekends exhaustion, but as she began all that faded and I literally leant in to get more of what she was dishing out. I was hooked, so drawn to her and the stage. It was this old record player/violin sample that sounded like the beginning of a black and white film – so unexpected but so perfectly layered with drum pad beat and her ridiculous voice. She looked like Alana from Broad City and sang like a mix of Lorde, Regina Spektor and Marina and the Diamonds. She half “rinsed”, half boxed across the stage to Here Comes Karma with so much punch, attitude and charm that my girl crush just exploded. It was that feeling you get when you’ve been listening to sub-par music for a day and then finally strike gold and have to listen to that sh*t on repeat for 9 hours straight. It’s like being able to eat chocolate after meat and veg for a fortnight, my entire being was nourished by her sound. Highlight track for me would have to be Get Money! (Ft mallrat) the funk of it, the drive, her range, everything was just so so great. Please go check her out, this girl is going to be making tsunami waves in the future.
For me, and I’m scared to say, but the support act almost outshone our Japanese Wallpaper boy. Very different in style, but I didn’t get what I was expecting from his performance. I felt the love, the hard work, the painstaking hours and all of his humbling modesty but the simplicity and light timbre was lost by having a full band. It added depth sure, but I wanted the gentle tip-toe lilting delicacy that gives me goosebumps. It just sounded like more of an indie rock band than his superior self-created genre. Supporting him on vocals was Triple J Unearthed High winner Gretta Ray and for such a greenie to the scene, she sure knows how to hold herself on stage and project a mature well-matured sound. Forces came back and gave me warm insides, as did Between Friends so there was definitely still beauty and preciousness in the set, just not as much if it’s been a 2 or 3 piece act.
MIA CAMPBELL-FOULKES
Pic by Littlek Photography
