Live Review: Tora, La Mar, Atlas Bound

It was a youthful crowd that hit up the Newtown Social Club on Friday night, or at least young at heart. At 9pm, the room was filled with gig -oers on their butts like schoolchildren, having soaked up the slick sounds of Atlas Bound.

Will Taylor’s honeyed voice over Adrian Kalcic’s polished percussion makes for music to sway to – see the aptly named Soul – and it was fitting that they covered Chet Faker (I’m Into You) as they follow a similar school, as do fellow Sydney duo La Mar.

“Turn down the lights/Let the city rest/Bodies in the night/Her head against my chest,” La Mar’s Dylan Wright crooned on the decidedly sexy Anchor, backed by atmospheric beats from a focused Andrew Grant – and the kids were now well and truly up on their feet.

Tora look like your typical bunch of boys from Byron but there’s maturity in their music. They emerged as a two-piece out of a bedroom but have since swollen to a party of five, and Tobias Tunis, Jo Loewenthal, Jai Piccone, Thorne Davis and Shaun Johnston are a tight-knit team weaving delicate, dreamy chillwave.

They count Sohn among their influences and toured with Miami Horror in September, so their sound might fly somewhere in between, with a little extra cosmic magic in there for good measure. With their new EP, Eat The Sun, they’ve broadened their fanbase and their horizons instrumentally.

From the shimmering guitars and thumping beat that makes Sugar Snap so catchy to the jittery marimba hook of Jaigantic, these songs are instantly both familiar and addictive, all tied together by Loewenthal’s smooth vocals. He brings a silky falsetto to more brooding tracks like Admire and Calming Her.

The band are joined on stage by Merryn Jean, who lends her ethereal voice to their biggest track so far, Overcome, a glitchy space mission of a track, as well as Never With Me, where we also get some impressive raps from Meals. By this time, the party is in full swing, with most of the room getting down and some even scrambling atop each other’s shoulders, and the band is clearly elated as the show comes to an end. Like Tora’s trajectory this year, that sure escalated quickly.