"London crowds are awful," my date observes three songs into Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood and Tom Skinner off Sons Of Kemet’s first night at Camden’s Roundhouse. "Why don’t they… move?"
Indeed, the audience, mainly cerebral lads of advancing years and declining hairlines, don’t seem especially up for a boogie. Which is weird, actually, because this new Radiohead side-hustle is fairly bristling with bangers.
Opener ‘Pana-Vision’ is not a banger, but it is beautiful, and as the London mandem welcome the lads to the stage with an appreciative smatter of ‘woos’ and mid-intensity applause, Thom hunches over his piano to sketch out an uncannily pretty riff.
They’re making very special music, these boys. Sublime melodies, exquisite arpeggios, clattering cod-jazz beats. They’ve managed to thread that most difficult of needles, crafting acutely interesting songs that connect, but sidestep every imaginable cliche. It’s a masterclass, and a privilege to behold.
And yikes, his voice. It’s even better live than on the record. I’m tempted to describe it as the voice of an angel. But not one of those lame, cherubic angels. I mean one of those inter-dimensional, vengeful, multi-eyed bastards from the Old Testament. The falsetto, so devastatingly pure. Those growls, so laden with divine insolence, his piercing honest-to-fucking-god shrieks. Goosebumps, mate.
"Machines make mistakes," gripes Thom at one point. "Almost as many as we do". There are a couple of technical hitches – Jonny’s bass cuts out, the ending of one or two tracks is a bit scruffy. Honestly though, it just humanises them. I’m all for it. Nice to see Jonny twanging a Gibson again, still somehow rocking the frame the fringe of a 19 year old.
‘Free In The Knowledge’, that sing-song strummy one off the album, went down well, and it was adorable to see Thom’s craggy Albert Steptoe face crease into a smile. Ditto bouncy new number ‘Friend Of A Friend’, aka ‘People On Balconies’, perhaps a cheeky nod to London Mayor Sadiq Khan who was apparently vibing hard up in the fancy-pants guest list bit.
Climactic banger ‘You Will Never Work In Television Again’ was an incendiary highlight, what a tune, and had the crowd more-or-less in raptures. Some bloke near me almost spilled some of his pint.
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Words: Andy Hill
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