Live Review: Damon & Naomi, Guy Blackman

Sitting at an electric piano, Guy Blackman charms a small crowd of seated punters with a selection of simple pop songs that are delivered in a straightforward, almost-earnest manner and with a knowing grin. Most of Blackman's songs deal with lyrics that are painfully honest – awkward reflections on the various states of being in love. Blackman suggests that Don't Ask Don't Tell is about gays in the military, but it also feels like an old Pet Shop Boys song about an estranged couple on the verge of splitting up. Touch And Go comes with a smoother, loved-up vibe and Blackman acknowledges that he started writing 'smooth' music because he realised some of his earlier material made him and his listeners feel uncomfortable. It's not long before he's treating us to a pretty sweet version of Kate McGarrigle's dramatic Go Leave. Looking nervous, Blackman takes a few gulps of water and, when this elicits a giggle from the audience, he exclaims, “I need to keep my vocal cords hydrated!” Blackman's nervous because he is unsure as to whether he should play us the next unnamed and unreleased song, but the intimacy of tonight's gig ensures he's relaxed enough to let loose an emotional tale of unrequited love that involves a male stripper in a gay bar who goes home with his girlfriend every night after the show. It is heartbreaking stuff but it all gets a little icky with Camming when Blackman sings of shows on the internet with headless torsos. The mood is soon buoyed with a politely toe-tapping version of Gayle.

Blackman warns us that Damon & Naomi will blow us away, and they do so right from the opening bars of their set without even breaking a sweat. It's a simple recipe. Damon Krukowski plays guitar and Naomi Yang plays keys as the duo's harmonising vocals delicately intertwine. The minimal arrangements produce a sound that is just so impossibly magical and astonishingly beautiful that everyone in the crowd is transported in the few minutes it takes them to play How Do I Say Goodbye. Of course this is to be expected from the duo that once constituted two thirds of the legendary Galaxie 500, a band that continues to inspire with its trademark dreamy shoegaze pop. An impossibly beautiful sound that Damon & Naomi kind of keep alive while embracing softer, sweeter, more intimate sounds. Drawing from their back catalogue that extends over seven albums, they quickly dispense flawless versions of What She Brings, supposedly inspired by a visit to the Freud Museum in London; the super-dreamy A Second Life; and the bleak Ueno Station, which is about just how grim it is up in northern Japan. After New York City, Krukowski reveals that the duo are about to re-release The Wondrous World Of…, which will feature Kramer's original mix of the album. Amusingly, Krukowski tells us that Kramer advised the band that he had erased the original mixes of the album when there was disagreement on how the record should sound. It never was erased, of course, and years later it seems to have turned up in a bag of tapes Kramer recently handed back to the duo. Moments later they approach the sublime with the evocative Helsinki from their last album False Beats And True Hearts. They match this with a spellbinding version of the painfully bittersweet Turn Of The Century that drifts as smoothly as the clouds on a still day. The duo encore with a delicately hazy, out-of-focus cover of Tim Buckley's underground evergreen Song To The Siren. An intimate evening of music with a couple of talented singer-songwriters who simply make some of the most beautiful music imaginable.