Despite the incredible speed at which our internet fuelled society works, the world of music can still appear to be lazily slow sometimes. We first posted about The Cordelier Club way back in April 2009 (here), yet only in December 2010 will the band release their first single – the chirpily upbeat Don’t Let It Go By. Like nearly all of the bands material it’s defined by their knack of writing mainstream radio friendly vocal hooks that sit comfortably alongside references we’ve quoted before when posting about the band – namely the likes of Revenge era Eurythmics or Fleetwood Mac in their higher pop moments. Also floating round the internet there’s a Pina Colada flavoured dance version of the bands We Can Dance remixed by Royal Palms which has a distinctly soft focus disco flavour to it. You can find it here for starters. There’s also a video to come soon for Don’t Let It Go By, which the band have been shooting part of in Dungeness, Kent.
Named after ‘Le Club des Cordeliers’, a group of French populist political activists, the brother sister duo of Richard and Alice Smith that make up The Cordelier Club write and record all of their own songs, but when we’ve seen them playing live they are supplemented by other musicians. The only confirmed date at the moment for the band is on November 29 in London’s Kings College Student Union, but we’re pretty sure further dates will follow in due course.
The XFM Xposure All Dayer at Camden Barfly in London is now in its fifth year and provides opportunity to see a diverse range of up and coming talent for a bargain price in a relatively small (200 capacity) venue. The 2010 stellar line up included a number of Breaking More Waves favourites and ones to watch including Holly Miranda, Stornoway, King Charles, Tinashe and The Cordelier Club. Those who managed to get out of bed early enough witnessed some of the highlights of the whole day, the line up being as strong on the bottom of the bill as it was the top.
This strength started at the very foot of the ladder. We’re informed that King Charles recently underwent some sort of near death experience, but his tribal blend of celtic psych folk is life affirming. With glorious pagan chanting, noodling angry guitar riffing, doomed drumming and braveheart sampled strings, the man with possibly the biggest hair in pop music knows how to ram power packed brilliance tightly into the cracks, with songs such as the jigalistic Love Lust and the upright Time for Eternity. Surely any man that can play a song entitled Hot Blood of a Polar Bear and the Cool Head of a Crocodile and make it sound phenomenally good deserves to go places.
With so many bands peddling the early 80’s sound back into fashion, it would come as no surprise if The Cordelier Club did the same. Yet the four piece reference 1986-1988 rather than 1981-1984. It’s a time when pop music discovered shoulder pads, big hair and pretended to be adult. Fronted by a brother sister duo, lead singer Alice encourages the audience to shout “I f*ckin’ love synths,” and bounds and bounces in an unashamed not-quite-sure-how-to-dance-but-I’m-going-to-anyway school disco manner to their extremely likeable middle of the road pop. Later day Eurythmics, The Pretenders, even Elkie Brooks come to mind and we suspect Alice could be one for the dads. Someone put them in the studio and watch their songs finding big local and BBC Radio 2 support. Possibly. Hopefully.
From FM friendly pop to something more ghostly, hazy and unsettling. The slender framed Holly Miranda (pictured) has none of the obvious hooks or choruses that the previous two acts have had. On first listen some of her tunes can seem almost impenetrable, formed out of odd rhythms, strong ethereal vocals and ambitious layered guitar complexities. This however is the beauty of what Miranda does. Hardly making any eye contact with the audience, Miranda immerses herself in her world and produces something with true depth. “Imagine you can hear bells,” says Holly when the instruments at her feet cannot be heard. There’s certainly something about her music that rings true.
The check shirted Tinashe seems to be everywhere that we are right now, having recently caught him at a Marina and the Diamonds gig (here) Like a distant cousin of Jack Penate bringing afropop influenced snappy acoustica he once again wins new friends, something he seems consummately skilled to do.
To keep the musical variety going Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs push out a seamless mix of laptop and knob twiddling dancefloor breaks that seriously doesn’t take itself too seriously. We seriously mean that. From creature like headwear to whipping out a keytar for a jittering piece of d-i-y techno, T.E.E.D rolls up sleeves and nimbly demolishes any respect for chin rubbing intellectuals. “A weird little afternoon rave” is how T.E.E.D describe the performance. But weird in this case is good. “Do you want it louder,” the chief dinosaur asks. Hell yes. Make it Brontosaurus.
It’s half time, the dancefloor is starting to become rather beer sodden, and the air has become rather stale so a trip outside the venue calls. Part 2 to be continued.....later today.
We’ve posted several times this year about The Cordelier Club a group who have not yet gained any significant attention, and are unsigned. However the brother and sister led act have been worming away writing some stomping and catchy as hell middle of the road pop songs. Now, middle of the road may sound like a horrendous categorisation to throw at a band, but The Cordelier Club embrace a sound that we suspect shows a refreshing and unusual love for Fleetwood Mac and later day Eurythmics when they left the synths at home and became a bra ripping pop rock band.
The Cordelier Club played this years In The City event in Manchester and following on from their slot at this years Bestival (review here) have just recorded a session for Breaking More Waves favourite Radio 1 DJ Rob Da Bank, which is due to air on the November 28th. The band are also lining up more gigs. But before all that here are The Cordelier Club performing a softer acoustic version of their song White Walls for your listening pleasure, which has recently been added to their Myspace along with cover versions of Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Nicks songs. Check out the strength of Alice’s vocal and the perfect matching of the harmonies.
After two days of almost incessant main stage hogging, Sunday takes Breaking More Waves to virtually every other point on the Bestival site.
Peggy Sue's alt. folk harmonies give a lo-fi kiss to a large hungover crowd at the Jim Beam Bar. Conveying hippyish ideals with flower garlands in their hair, lyrics declaring that “Love will save the day,” and strong soulful female vocals the group are just the tonic for sore heads. After they finish with a stomping version of The Sea The Sea they sell out of the CD’s that they’ve brought with them, a good sign.
The shadow of a ferris wheel creates rotating patterns on the arc shaped canopy above the stage as Ohbijou play songs from their album Beacons. With silken strings and lush violins tussling with Casey Mecija’s angelic girlish vocal, their folk rock sound could easily become twee and indistinct, but it never does, always falling into something more substantial. Intro To Season sounds like Arcade Fire snuggling up with Joanna Newsom and barely lasts over two minutes, but is so lovely it wouldn’t be strange to be found wanting to give the band a hug.
Over in the Big Top Hockey demonstrate with a beach ball that yanks can’t do soccer, and neither do these lads seem to be able to score any musical goals. The bands white boy indie funk has a fair amount of groove but lacks capacity for tunes. It’s only when the LCD Soundsystem sound-a-like pop of Too Fake gets an airing that ears stir. When one particular loon of a punter manages to get on his friends shoulders and presses his face close up to the camera filming proceedings, his ugly mug covering the large video screens to the side of the stage, and it is the highlight of the set, you know something is wrong.
Delphic from Manchester are much better, particularly when they drop their guitars and let washes of indie dance synths cascade around the tent on the loopy and Orbital influenced Counterpoint. Then there is the monumental This Momentary with its “Let’s do something real,” chanted vocal call to arms, where building percussion creates space and energy that given a later night appearance would have developed into a transcendental hands in the air moment.It may not be staggeringly original, 'indie dance' is the category here, but if they can create a body of work as good as these two songs they will be onto something.
Back at the Jim Beam bar Polly Scattergood (pictured) is resplendent in silver, pink feathers and neon yellow / green. Polly is an unusual creature, although very young she seems much older, her girlish vocal and dark sometimes sexual lyrics confusing the issue even more. “You can spit on my French knickers sir, you can call me a whore, if you roll in, roll out, roll up to the Bunny Club,” she sings in a destitute vulnerable manner during Bunny Club, her next single. On Other Too Endless she utters “And I gave you my body, and when I said I did I meant it, and you gave me your anger, and for that I’m still trying to vent it.” It’s all pretty disturbing stuff, with themes of suicide, abuse and clinging on to long gone lovers permeating her performance. Yet despite these themes Polly sings with a smile and theatrically poses her way round the stage as if she were auditioning for Yo Gabba Gabba whilst unsettling electronics add to her blend of broken Prozac Nation pop. It’s oddly schizophrenic and enjoyable all at the same time.
Doves represent our first and only trip of the day to the main stage. The band provide a functional greatest hits set which is watched by Guy Garvey of Elbow in the wings. Doves are talented and accomplished musicians (even permitting the false start on the opening song they play) but after four albums their sound and set is becoming predictable. We would have bet our lives on them finishing with There Goes The Fear, and indeed they do. We said it earlier this year and we stand by our statement that we wish that Doves would now go and do something to surprise us. Maybe a rejuvenation of the Sub Sub ideas would be a neat twist to the left ?
The Bandstand area of Bestival is virtually empty as The Cordelier Club play with just a smattering of friends and stragglers watching. The Cordelier Club sound is very much one of adult middle of the road pop from the eighties with a powerful female rock vocal. There are hints of Stevie Nicks, Roxette, The Pretenders and Eurythmics circa Revenge - not particularly hip reference points, but it is exactly that and the quality of their songs that makes the band stand out. The group have hook after hook, sharp enough to gut wrench you in. One listen to Fire In The City with its “Don’t stop, we go far, running from the city in a getaway car,” chorus and our head is spinning dizzily. Stolen Lovers is even better with big Radio 2 styled high catchiness, it could easily sneer with vibrant abandon from the top of the pop mountain. In a festival full of oddness, The Cordelier Clubs mainstream position seems strangely leftfield and staggering brilliant because of it.
And talking of odd, we take a brave (many would say stupid) decision to miss Elbow (who as much as we love we have seen many times before) to sample Squarepusher, who we have never seen and on paper sound like they will tick our box. If ever there was an argument for taking risks then this would be it. Squarepusher would blind us with brilliance and we would go away happy. Unfortunately the whole thing is a massive endurance test. Faceless experimentation can be brilliant at times, but in the Big Top Squarepusher barrage us with dirty noise, erratic beats and utter chaos in their sound. Headache inducing tosh. Sometimes there’s an argument for playing safe as well. Apparently Elbow were brilliant. Damn.
And with that Bestival begins to draw to a close. There is more dancing to be done still, but in terms of live music that’s it. Bestival 2009 was the biggest yet and in places (Kraftwerk particularly) was the best it’s ever been. There is no doubt that Bestival as a festival has changed. The quirky randomness that the original first two events in particular had still exists, but it has been pushed to the side through its sold out 40,000 capacity popularity. There will be some who will say that the festival has lost its vibe or soul, and certainly the respect for the site at the end of the event seems to have disappeared with the camping areas resembling other large festivals in terms of littering (see video below) and some graffiti terrorism spoiling the hand crafted artwork in the main arena areas. However there will be others who say that there is now even more fun to be had and that the organisation of the event gets better every year. Purely in terms of live music (sound issues from the main stage notwithstanding) and bill quality Breaking More Waves is of the opinion that Bestival 2009 was the best yet. God knows how Rob Da Bank and crew are going to top Kraftwerk next year, but we’ll be looking forward to finding out.
The Cordelier Club are not, as far as we are aware, French revolutionaries and they do not wish to act against the monarchy or the old regime. In fact the one song we’ve heard from The Cordelier Club creates a right royal sound. We know very little about this sibling duo named Alice and Richard, except they are playing this years Camden Crawl as well as Bestival and that Stolen Lovers is a madly eccentric pop song that could appeal to the masses. It starts like a delicate floating indie folk tune with a hardy female vocal before it breaks out into a star catching, boot stomping pop song with enough “Ba ba ba,” and “Woah Woah Woah,” chants to satiate or sicken depending on your perspective. There’s even a keyboard part that sounds like Sparks or Supertramp. It’s a song that is creepily chirpy and undoubtedly brimming with life. For now we’re filing this band in that tall drawer named big mainstream pop potential.
There's no video for the song, but pop over to their myspace on the link above and have a listen.
Edit : 7th April - No sooner had this post gone up, than the band took the song down from their Myspace ! So now instead have a listen to When You Were Young another chirpy tune which doesn't quite match up to Stolen Lovers but is still half decent, until they take it down and put something else up!
