Something about this gig caught our eye and a last-minute decision is made to attend. We arrive with no expectation. We leave with our jaw firmly on the floor and truly and excitably in love with the best new band we have seen in years.
The band have just taken to the stage as we arrive, and we hear a spoken word part that leads into a droning violin as we fight our way through the packed crowd to the strains of ‘Volcano’ and the incredible ‘Vallåt’.
Before us, underneath a banner proclaiming the band’s name and a rather suggestive painting of a cut open pomegranate, is a vision in white lace of vestal virginity and Victorian folk weirdness. The musical line-up is also unique with Nina seated with a cello, Ella on stand-up drums and flute, Kate on bass, and Violet on a mixture of percussive guitar and violin. Are these witches or goddesses, fairies or psychedelic folk punk riot grrrls? Or are they all of the above?
Before anything gets too serious the proceedings are then brought to a halt as Ella exclaims: “I just need to get the spit out of my flute.”
We are then treated to the B-side of the new single that’s already been on the New Music Show on 6 Music. ‘Mother’ is a brooding beast of a track with a Tom Waits driving rhythm, screeching flute, and some really inventive playing from Violet who uses her guitar as a percussion instrument.
All four band members join in with vocals and the harmonies combine and divide in a disorientating affair. Drops of folk from all over the world join in the mix, with similarities springing to mind of Mongolian throat singers Yat-kha or the vocal soundscapes of the Ukrainian band DakhaBrakha.
The guitar now twangs like a jew’s harp as the cello builds and we are in a state of rapture, hoping we don’t go the way of Edward Woodward in The Wicker Man. Gigs this special where the music transcends all boundaries of the ‘here and now’ are few and hard to come by. We are reminded of the experience of seeing the similarly hypnotic Goat, and in particular their gig a few years ago at the Concorde 2.
More spoken word sections build into bursts of music, as the lights flash between bright white and blood red. At one point three members of the band take out harmonicas including the largest bass harmonica we have ever seen.
Something in the music reminds us of the ‘Boléro’, and we almost expect Torvill and Dean to skate through the room at precisely the point Violet begins to dance in a balletic style.
The set is brought to a close by ‘Original Sin’, with several members of the audience having appeared in the sixties style video that accompanies the single. Roses are handed out to the crowd, flowers are flying everywhere and Violet expressively crushes them above her head, as Nina leads the song from its beat group start into the weirder places it goes.
We are left stunned and ecstatic. We can’t wait to see the film these songs will one day soundtrack, and we can’t shake the feeling that this might just be the best new band on the planet and that tonight we were actually there.
Green Door Store, Friday 21st July 2023
Words by Nick McAllister
Photos by Mark Duncan
