Adem / Nancy Elizabeth

Having being intrigued by Adem when he supported Daniel Johnston last year, I could not wait to see him in a rare show surrounded by many a weird and wonderful instrument. Hopefully the bells will make an appearance...

Nancy Elizabeth is the support for tonight; a softly spoken girl who can also pack a punch with the guitar. Another multi-instrumentalist, she moves from xylophone to guitar to harp, and is very proficient on them all. With vocals that quiver on the edge of breaking up at points, it is a beautiful performance, made all the more inviting with the odd joke about the instruments (at the end of the set she waits to silence the guitar strings, and causes a laugh in the absorbed crowd). 'Battle And Victory', the title track of her album, is the stand out track here.



The stage is quite cluttered with lots of intriguing musical instruments in all the colours of the rainbow. Adem needs a hand surely with all these, and he does, in the form of six highly talented musicians (Vince Sipprell, Emma Smith, Fay Buzzard, Matt Lord, Chris Vatalaro and Nancy Elizabeth, who returns to help out), who seem to swap about duties and perform just as well on anything they pick up. They are briefly touring straight after a good slot at All Tomorrow's Parties (Explosions In the Sky) festival "at Butlins. We were on after Dinosaur Jr!"

Kicking off with a straight acoustic version of Smashing Pumpkins' 'Starla', the night is heading in a great direction. PJ Harvey's 'Oh My Lover' flows suit, as does Pinback's 'Loro', with the whole seven members singing the "Do" parts, giving the tune a huge rush that you can feel.



Adem's vocals are very similar to those of dEUS frontman Tom Barman, especially shown in 'Hotellounge'. The effort Adem puts into pitch perfect vocals and crystal clear lyrics really makes you sit up and notice.

His version of Bjork's 'Unravel' is pretty much a standard cover, without the duel vocals, but it's Adem's reworking of the lyrics from 'To Cure A Weakling Child' mixed into the music of 'Boy/Girl' that shows you the strength of Adem's musical ability. If anyone can make the hurried rush of Aphex Twin's sound turn into a beautiful round of vocals and twinkling notes, full of crescendos that are quite frankly out of this world then they can do just about anything. There's the little things as well, like the guy playing the violin like a guitar for the plucking notes, the Xylomatic (a programmable glockenspiel) and the little wind up toy used for the wooden grating sounds.



The most interesting part to produce a sound (previously unheard of by myself) was to use the violin bow and slide it down the edges of different bars of the glockenspiel, creating an eerie but soft backdrop to the rest of the music. Simply beautiful and atmospheric.

That, along with the strangely patterned (Adem's favourite- dots) accordion / keyboard and you have visual as well as listening enjoyment. It makes you want to go up and have a go, if eth band themselves weren’t so damn good.

Adem himself, probably the master multi-instrumentalist of the all, moves around the instruments, playing guitar, ukulele, xylophone (comically messing up on the words to Lisa Germano's 'Slide' in the process) and the Xylomatic, as well as sharing his powerful but unassuming vocals.

After Yo La Tengo's 'Tears Are In Your Eyes' it's time for an Adem favourite, the bright and sparkly 'These Are Your Friends', a definite hit for the fans sitting about. The set ends without an encore on the cover of Low's 'Laser Beam', which is almost like a quiet lullaby, complete with the bells! Enter Sandman indeed...



The covers album is a fantastic idea, bringing together the more well known (Breeders, Smashing Pumpkins, Bjork) and mixing with the relatively unknown (Lisa Germano, Yo Le Tengo) and making bold and brilliant new tunes (Aphex Twin's 'To Cure A Weakling Child' + 'Boy/Girl' song). After bringing us his own albums 'Love And Other Planets', and 'Homesongs', and the songs as bassist with Fridge, a covers album is allowed, especially of this quality. I look forward to more of his work.

Starla
Oh My Lover
Loro
Hotellounge
Unravel
To Cure A Weakling Child + Boy/Girl Song
Invisible Man
Cut
Slide
Tears Are In Your Eyes
These Are You Friends
Laser Beam

FUTURE GIGS

sorry, we currently have no gigs listed for this act.