Opening act: the duo Sylvan Esso

They took up little stage space, but occupied it well.

The focused drive of the synthesizer player and the unfettered, more explosive dance moves of the female singer add to the music and incite us to enjoy it as much as they do.

Towards the beginning, after a subdued passage, a massive bass unexpectedly erupts and fills up the room, resounds with our bodies. This final ingredient provides enough color for the band to stick to that palette until the end of their act — simple, yet effective. Seeing the band live really helps one understand what they’re going for. They might sound insipid on studio versions or even bootlegs, but their concerts bring just enough to the table for the result to be tasty. From their little bastion on the barely towering stage, Sylvan Esso conquered many unsuspecting souls that night. Who would have thought?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgHmct_qH7g

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Main act: tUnE-yArDs

Try to follow the complex rhythmic patterns that support their melodies and you will soon be at a loss. Just as you start making some sense of the percussions’ logic, the pattern subtly changes to disorient you once more. In the end, what we have is highly colourful, creative, uplifting music, with sparse bits of sounds floating here and there, in a seemingly haphazard manner but actually very well planned. Even though the tracks are quite similar in style, the landscapes the band guides us through are so varied that we never grow bored.

In addition to their heavy use of intricate rythmic patterns, the band occasionnaly resorts to other tools, for example dragged-out dissonant sections when playing “Gangsta” live. In “Look Around”, the skipping, detuned vocals give the track its distinct flavour. Its fitting timbre also plays a part… which brings us to the ultimate ingredient of this explosive cocktail, namely project mastermind Merrill Garbus. Her assertive voice, characteristically hoarse on high notes (“Water Fountain”), can also be lulling for the more toned-down tracks (“Wait for a Minute”). This contrast is sometimes reinforced by some opportune sound manipulations that make for quite a bit of dynamism and novelty among the tracks. Last but not least, the biggest trademark of the band is probably its composition style, heavily centered on loops. As such, it’s always extremely interesting to watch tUnE-yArDs perform live and see Merrill Garbus seemingly effortessly recreate the texture of the songs, one loop at a time. This method gives their tracks a decidedly organic feel, and we might have a case of “chicken or egg” with the band’s use of loop pedals and its interest in off-beat patterns.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcCkqfiFyZY (massive props to the backup vocalists & performers, among whom Jo Equality Lampert — definitely the most marking backup performer of all the concerts I’ve attended)