Jamie Lidell, Super Melody @The Corner, Melbourne(13/02/10)

Tue 16th Feb, 2010 in Gig Reviews

Three songs in to his set one man band Super Melody is playing to a crowd of believers (his devoted mates up front) and the baffled and bemused (everyone else). Having dispatched with the ‘new romantic karaoke’ of his opening tracks he’s jerking about the stage singing over a backing track like the sort of performer you make a wide pass from when navigating the late night buskers. Octopus (“No need to push/ or beat around the bush/ cause you’re an octopus”) sounds like the result being waterboarded with Mr Scruff’s novelty songs, but thankfully like Scruff Super Melody has an ear for a bouncy electro pop hook.

Super Melody is the nom-de-plume of James Cecil, formerly of Architecture In Helsinki, and currently hitting stages as part of Qua, but tonight he’s solo and showing why there are so few acts that consist of one man, a laptop and a set of bongos. Despite his naff lyrics and a voice that could be politely termed adequate, Super Melody’s set somehow manages to come together into an oddly enjoyable mess. Joined by a few colourful mates to dance to Madonna’s Into The Groove and bash the bongos, Super Melody finishes on a high promising to return soon with a full band to back him.

Jamie Lidell doesn’t need any dancers, or even a bongo, on stage to ply his magic. Though there’s something slightly octopus like in his ability to juggle so many tasks at once – layering beat boxing, harmonies and soulful vocals in to a dazzling party mix.

With three microphones, a laptop and a console featuring more wires than McNulty’s wildest Western district dreams Lidell, alternates between loose looping jams and simpler karaoke soul. There’s little structure in the show and if there was a scrawled set list on stage it didn’t seem to direct proceedings as Lidell drew his tracks out into extended jamming experiments. ‘Don’t know what this is gonna be but I’m gonna like it’ before building a version of City that’s unrecognisable until he steps forward to sing the familiar lyrics. Catching sight of himself in the projector screens he indulges in a series of dance moves that are probably seen more often in lounge rooms to the accompaniment of the Bangles than on stage at the Corner, but Lidell is simply having a great time and it’s catching.

Though he works up a decent sweat during the set, the tour seems to be an Australian summer jaunt before the real work of 2010 – the release and promotion of his new record Compass. With guest appearances by Beck, Feist, Chris Taylor from Grizzly Bear and Pat Sansone from Wilco the new album is likely to introduce Lidell to a new flock of listeners, but for now he’s playing about and experimenting in front of a crowd of fans more than happy to indulge him.

New album cut I Wanna Be Your Telephone pops up, as does another new track Turn Around, which missed the cut for the new album, but the set draws mostly from older work with Little Bit More Wait For Me, Multiply and Where’d You Go (dedicated to dedicated to Gonzalez and his sweaty ways) all keeping the punters entertained.

The clock’s arrows have struck Valentine’s Day as Lidell returns for the encore with the Princely rave up of When I Come Back Around, Music Will Not Last and closes by conducting the audience in a series of ‘ohohohs’ on Another Way (a song seemingly tailor made for indie rom-com credit sequences). Valentine’s Day is one hell of a trite celebration, but it would have been no shock to see a classified or two in the Valentine’s edition of the tabloid paper declaring love for Lidell and begging him to bring that new album over for a full band tour very soon.

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