Cougar Microbes

I caught East London‘s Tigercats live at the Barfly in Camden supporting Magic Kids and ‘Allo Darlin. I had read some great things about the band but only heard a handful of tracks available through their myspace this was a chance for them to win me over.

The 4 piece hit the stage and I was immediately struck by how much bigger their songs sound live. Despite occasionally veering into twee territory, and certainly not in a bad way,  on record from the stage the different components sound beefier and harder hitting.

Appearing to mix Pavements rare ability to turn even a relative simple riff on its head with Sky Larkin‘s British exuberance the band were sounding are tighter than a Chilean mine shaft. The best weapon in their arsenal has to be frontman Duncan Barrett whose distinctive nasal vocals, occasional falsetto and hazy lyrics lend a uniqueness to the band’s sound.

Tigercats have two singles available now through Haircut Records and are on a bit of a promotional round at the moment. They’re playing some London dates in early december, I’ll be there and you should too.

TRACKS:

Tigercats – Nude With Dogs

My appreciation for The Kissaway Trail was established on the live stage and their performance, opening the main stage at Wireless Festival in 2006, was the basis for one of the early posts on this blog.

It seems incredible to think it has been nearly 4 years since that performance and the release of the band’s debut album but the tracks on that album still sound fresh today. Just as I began to think the band had dissapeared off the face of the earth news begun to filter through of an upcoming release ‘Sleep Mountain’ on hip us label Bella Union.

The Danish 5-piece kicked off an ambitious tour which seemingly brought them through London every other week and I caught performances at the Lexington, the Barfly and fiitingly stumbled across their show at the Hoxton Bar & Frill, just as I had done back in Hyde park.

Some of these venues where smaller than the actual bar stand at Wireless Festival and I was looking forward to hearing the bands repertoire, old and especially new, in such an intimate setting. With their chiseled looks and Nordic cool the band looked the part and received an appreciative response from the ever present Danish contingent before they even hit the stage.

Tracks from their debut sounded brilliant, obviously benefitting from the experience gained from years on the road; managing to be polished and magnified. Better still, the new material showed matured songwriting approach with co-frontmen Thomas and Soren developing a penchant for sweeping instrumentals and dramatic melodies. All this built on the foundations of a solid rythmn section lead by impressive skills of drummer Hasse.

Over a few nights I witnessed The Kissaway Trail put in a dependable shift and win over audiences big and small. With Sleep Mountain being released just recently I hope it is not another 4 years before I see and hear from them again.

Tracks:

The Kissaway Trail – SDP (White Lies remix)