Live Review: Mammals, Rat & Co., Kite String Tangles

Brisbane's Kite String Tangle opened up with a relaxed set. Producer Danny Harley has listened closely to post-IDM/R&B acts like Mount Kimbie and Active Child a lot, but the lessons learned weren't so much about beat patterns and chord structures; he's far more interested in tone and texture. His voice isn't polished so it has a fine grain, and he carries a note like a college alt-rock singer – clean and steady, from way down in the gut. It's his best asset (amongst quite a few good ones). The mix was perfect too, with his voice sitting on top of the arrangements nicely. His set was good, but there were no peaks and troughs. One song followed the other until the set was done, with little variation.

Rat & Co., despite their ordinary name, are an exciting group that are hard to pin down. Sometimes our clumsy vocabulary doesn't have the words to describe things neatly, so we have to throw a bunch of known terms together in the attempt. Let's try: experimental post-rock ambient prog pop. Whatever. They sounded great, and their set was full of delicately pared-back art rock and beautiful vocal layering and sharp, explosive percussion. Lots of noise, full of heart. Front man Josh Delaney's voice-as-instrument technique had shades of Sigur Ros, and as a band they have the same cinematic scope. The set had a really fine sense of weirdness that crept in at the edges courtesy of some subtle synth work in the intro and outros of each song, and it added a tautness that made the creamy space jams in the centre of each piece seem that much more luxurious. In hindsight they deserved the headline slot.

It's very telling during a set when the band competes with an audience that are busy chatting to each other. Sure, the atmosphere was friendly and it felt like a bunch of friends meeting again after an undisclosed hiatus, but it also felt like Mammals were either not really interested or weren't that interesting. Mammals (or Guy Brown to his mates) briefly shook the local triple j scene with Move Slower, but it never really moved GoodGod more than obligatory, “Hey I turned up to your show, bro” cheers and whistles. They know how to arrange a song, they write fairly well, but it was weaksauce in execution, sliding through each glistening, bleeding-heart chord pattern lazily. Disappointing.