Vibrant Sydney ambient pop outfit Gnome are finally ready to release their first EP See In Walk and the Brighton Up Bar was nice enough to host their launch with fellow progressive pop outfits Christo Jones and Golden Blonde.
Sydney's Golden Blonde have developed their sound into an accomplished folktronica act, with IDM touches. The four-piece set the tone for the night, creating soft dense clouds of layered vocals, beat textures and interesting patterns. They have a good sense of how to deliver approachable noise art and their intricate pieces felt akin to some of Grizzly Bear's wilder moments (or perhaps Battles' quieter ones).
Performing solo and designing songs around layers is always something akin to spinning plates. The tension inherent in manipulating so many elements and keeping them all in sync (tonally as well as tempo) is matched by the glowing rush when the song comes together and sounds (in Christo Jones' case) amazing. He has an extraordinary ear for sounds from different eras and manages to melt them together seamlessly, with several songs that bounced from '60s harmony pop to stuff reminiscent of early Yeasayer material. His talent for arranging and managing all the instruments with mechanical discipline and aesthetic intuition was remarkable. When his voice seemed a little off, he simply added harmony and beat patterns and made it work.
Sydney bass producer Anomie (Sofie Loizou) brought a nice set of progressive hip hop beats, filling the time while Gnome set up. It was a sophisticated little selection of instrumental stuff and it was a nice tonal shift between sets.
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Gnome gained a warm reception earlier this year after they scored the theme spot for the Sydney Festival campaign. Since then a slew of shows and support slots see them finally getting some headline love and with the release of their EP soon, we'll hopefully see a lot more of them. The addition of guitarist Danny Keig (Megastick Fanfare) makes a huge difference to their sound. They create warm synth fuelled ambient pop pieces and the addition of a guitar adds a more defined, vivid quality to their dreamy arrangements. The mix early on was a little off and their vocals (an integral part of their sound) were lost. After two songs though they found their footing and delivered a confident set of beautiful pieces, while bathed in some excellent visuals projected onto the stage.
