Dream-pop buzz band BRAIDS played for a packed house this week at XOYO. In 2008 BRAIDS released their first EP and started playing with bands including Deerhunter. But the band from Montreal has gotten lots of attention since the release of their debut full length album Native Speaker earlier this year. They’ve drawn comparisons to early Broken Social Scene and Arcade Fire (though I like them better than both) and garnered much due praise from sites like Pitchfork and Stereogum.
The fairly new outfit consists of a typical indie rock set-up with a guitarist, keys, drums, and bass with each member contributing vocals. But they also use loop machines and synths to craft their dreamlike melodies, which can sometimes spell disaster at a live gig. I’ll admit that after listening to the tracks from Native Speaker I was skeptical of their ability to recreate the impressive atmosphere that you get when listening to the record. Wrong I was. Their set was a non-stop ebb and flow of mesmerizing soundscapes: a perfect amalgam of wafting airy vocals, oozing synths and seriously tight drums.
BRAIDS were all about creating a mood with sound.
BRAIDS-Lemonade
BRAIDS- Native Speaker
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Once they started playing, they didn’t stop. Between songs crackling or bubbling sounds accompanied cymbal work and looped vocals to keep the magic alive. It was like they knew that they were going to put you on another planet and you wouldn’t want to leave. When they got to their third song, the most recognizable one on the record, Lamikken, they already had the audience in a trance. The problem when bands like BRAIDS perform live is that with too many keys, guitars, vocals and loops being layered, instead of creating an interesting vibe it just creates chaos. It gets muddier and more confusing with every added ooo-aahhh. But Austin Tufts’ interesting yet focused drum work coupled with Raphaelle Standell-Preston’s piercing vocals held it together. Tufts explained in an interview that their songs have “a ton of different parts…but each part is very melodically strong”. He was right, it’s lush stuff…but it works.
When Raphaelle pulled us out of our dreamstate to announce the last song I felt like I had just awoken from a sleep that I had slipped into just moments before. She expressed her utmost gratitude to the crowd of Londoners who, based on the enthusiastic response, all seemed to have genuinely enjoyed the set (except for this one guy who screamed out “I’m sexually repressed!”…awkward). They finished off the performance with a beautiful version of Native Speaker, and that was it...the end of a musically induced hypnosis.
-Hillary D.
-Hillary D.
