With a fine new record under the belt, Amber Arcades are back on the road promoting the hell out of European Heartbreak all over the UK before some live dates in their native Holland; tonight’s Belgrave show also boasting a pretty handy undercard.
First on is locally based duo Jellyskin, a surprisingly assured mixed duo blending austere electronic ambience and lo-fi sensibilities, the results pretty decent and certainly deserving more than the couple of dozen diehards who’ve arrived early. Tonight’s appearance is one of many Jellyskin supporting dates for the likes of KVB and Brian Jonestown Massacre; and on this evening’s evidence, Will and Zia should be sticking around for a quite a while yet.
Ontarian trio Basement Revolver are thrilled to be playing the UK for the second time this year, having wowed the Great Escape festival in the spring and with fine debut album ‘Heavy Eyes’ hot off the press. Starting their set with the swooping yet infections melody of ‘Baby’, Chrisy Hurn (Guitar/Vocals), Nimal Agalwatte (Bass) and Brandon Munroe (drums) prove to be the second pleasant surprise of the evening, despite the stubbornly low crowd numbers. People are certainly missing a treat here and yes we’re only talking fragile wistful indie-pop, but the songs are rather good, perhaps aided by their sheer simplicity, ‘Johnny’ and ‘Bread and Wine’ managing to really get under the skin.
The numbers finally start to swell ahead of the emergence of Amber Arcades, complete with striking lead singer Annelotte de Graaf resplendent in presumably the same gold two-piece as she’s wearing on the cover of ‘European Heartbreak’, announcing to the audience “We’re Amber Arcades and we’re from the European Union’.
The AA setlist draws heavily from the new material including the Gallic chic of ‘Simple Song’ and ‘Alpine Town’ as well as exquisitely elegiac tracks ‘Oh My Love’ ‘Goodnight Europe’ and ‘Something’s Gonna Take Your Love Away’, De Graaf’s sultry yet matter of fact vocal style perhaps reminiscent of Aimee Mann, the brass really adding warmth and depth to the songs. Indeed, for ‘Self Portrait in a Car at Night’ it’s just Annelotte and the trumpet guy creating a deliciously intimate moment before the three other musicians re-emerge.
The band’s rockabilly shuffle infused interpretation of Nick Drake’s peerless ‘Which Will’ is also rather splendid, the main set concluding with the corking straight ahead sixties throwback ‘It Changes’ and following a three song encore, everyone departs replete with a brief reminder of the recent long hot summer thanks to Amber Arcades sun drenched tunes.
Words - Mike Price
