Every Wednesday, Marta brings a slice of the Mediterranean to Sheffield to see if the music scene really differs at all.
Going back to The Harley is always a pleasure, but this time there is something more exotic than usual in the air: an American band is playing tonight.
They are not a young breakthrough, but experienced musicians. They are Xiu Xiu, from Seattle, a delightful mixture of gloomy electro-pop, noise and vocals.
The name comes from the original title of the 1998 film Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl: a film about a girl who goes away from China to study horses in the countryside from a nomadic Tibetan.
Xiu Xiu’s music matches their name very well, being mysterious, new age-y and quite pretentious – but in a good way. Jamie Stewart’s voice perfectly accompanies the instruments and distortions rather than the other way around.
The result reminds of Editors for the gloomy, electro-pop atmosphere, the perfect dance soundtrack for those who like to dance on the border of a precipice. Other declared musical influences are the usual dark side of pop music: Joy Division, The Cure, Sex Pistols and punk in general.
Sometimes the exaggerated distortion and showing off their pseudo-digital research appeared too much, at their best they remind of the pop from the ’90s, a time in which musicians were not afraid of being fresh, original and experimental.
They use noise to emphasize silence, which becomes an indispensible part of their performance. Provided you all switched off your mobiles, of course.
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