The gorgeous music hall retro chic of Manchester’s Deaf Institute is a suitably kitsch setting for The Phenomenal Handclap Band’s brew of dirty funk, schoolyard rap and sweet ‘70s soul. The indie glitterati maybe across town watching Elbow and the Hallé Orchestra, but here, a couple of hundred folk are squidged into the cosy room awaiting some classic New York beats.
Two DJs, Daniel Collás and Sean Marquand, front the collective, whose cosmically good debut album calls in favours from a bus-load of Brooklyn friends, including TV On The Radio’s Jaleel Bunton. Live, they’re ‘only’ an eight-piece, jostling for space on the smallish stage. But, boy, they are funky as hell and don’t miss a beat. They open with recent single ‘You’ll Disappear’ (VIDEO) – scuzzy guitars contorting the track into a psychedelic disco monster, while the divine lead vocalists Laura Marin and Joan Tick do that ‘effortless New York nonchalance’ thing, as Collás wrestles juicy slabs of electronic babble from his Korg keyboard.
There is always something to catch the eye. Lead guitarist Quinn Luke sports a shaggy beard, a shock of ringlets, flares and patent leather loafers – he also provides vocals on the disco preach of ‘All Of The Above’, exhorting the crowd to “Be something you can be proud of / And try to keep yourself clean,” against a backdrop of guttural Parliament-inspired funk. By now, members of the crowd who were hanging round at the back have shuffled forward, as if pulled in by a rhythmic spell.
Marin takes centre stage for ‘15 To 20’, the band’s outrageously catchy jump-rope jam. She nails the old-school rap verses, and ensures that the chorus of “5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40 / All that money and still ridin’ the bus?” is injected like lyrical heroin into the memory banks of her audience. They end with ‘I’ve Been Born Again’, which starts out as a euphoric gospel disco stomp, and ends in a blaze of feedback and mashed keyboards. And that’s it: 35 minutes of funk heaven, lapped up by both sweet indie kids and ageing Northern Soul veterans alike.
Afterwards, a beaming Marquand admits that touring the UK is “all new to us,” and as he receives backslaps aplenty from his new converts says he’s genuinely “amazed by the crowd reaction so far”. See The Phenomenal Handclap Band live in London when they play Clash and Oakley’s Sunglasses At Night show at London’s The Queen Of Hoxton on Saturday 18th July – get details HERE. Be sure to dig out those dancing shoes.
Words: John Freeman
Photo: Ryan Muir
