Kyu, Oscar S. Thorn @Paddington Uniting Church,Sydney (22/10/10)

Thu 28th Oct, 2010 in Gig Reviews

Paddington Uniting Church was the venue for the local album release of Kyu on Friday night supported by Oscar (& Martin). The physical space of the chapel itself played a significant role in the shaping of the experience of each of these live performances. The gothic sandstone structure with its distant ceilings, stained glass windows and the limited chairs towards the edges of the room combine to create a cavernous and beautiful surrounds.

Opening up the night was Oscar S. Thorn -half of the duo Oscar & Martin. He started off without an introduction, diving confidently into his spacious loop centric songs. Despite his expressed nervousness at missing Martin’s contributions to band, Oscar skillfully filled out the sound, providing a lesson in multitasking as he flitted variously between keys, laptop, loop trigger, guitar, floor toms all the while holding it together with wafting melodies. The songs revolved around interesting rhythm and soaring melodies and were strong-one can imagine even better as a duo, a band well worth keeping an eye out for over the coming months.

Kyu’s set began with their twenty-four piece choir, all clad in black with a red smear of war paint across their faces filling silently into the raised stalls behind the stage. Alyx Dennison and Freya Berkhout then tinkled onto the stage care of bells on Freya’s ankles and conducted their choir into the first tune. Around the choir they lay a piano base plate and then threw in above this spoken word, chest-beating percussion, with loops bubbling in and out, and then the centerpiece of their spacious sound which comes through each of the girls beautiful strong vocals, which move across a large between shimmering and pristine-pop melodies.

It is hard to believe that Kyu are only releasing their first record right now, as the duo seemed completely adept at executing their sound throughout their set. They showed the curious ability to hold an audience at arms length while drawing them closely in and only directly addressed the crowd at one point in during their show, but crowd’s response was rapturous throughout the set.

The choir assembled behind them could have been a distraction to the songs, but they were used purposefully and to great effect contributing both melody and percussion (including Jonathan Boulet occasionally on the bass drum).

One of the prevalent themes throughout the show was the way that Kyu explore space within their music. One song saw them both sitting at the piano and singing, this floats beautifully until in a matter of moments the whole tone changes and they bring in an aggressive beat, quickly filling up the space that they had flowed through just moments before. They skillfully played with the quiet-loud dynamic, but never descended into familiarity, washing the audience in the glow of the songs as they drift in and out of their pop sensibilities.

Kyu have billed themselves as an exploration into pop, and this show certainly proved their point as they filled an expectant crowd with their explorations into space and sound, and left (sans encore) to a standing ovation.

Check out the photos from the gig