Night & Day is heaving full again; it’s yet another sell-out played out in tropical heat to a friendly smiling crowd, who were busy generating positive vibrations of their own in the wake of an ambient but impressive set from BRIGHT BLACK MORNING LIGHT, who had left the stage by the time I’d squeezed myself in past the friendliest door team in the city (they are absolute gentlemen) and re-orientated myself via the bar.
Tonight was an XFM showcase, a sampler of the music played by radio jock JOHN KENNEDY, who was in attendance as the master of ceremonies and reminding us that BBML are in session on his Monday evening show.
So it was to a full house that JILL BARBER took the stage for her debut Manchester performance and proceeded to captivate the audience with a gorgeous and heady mixture of blues, jazz and soul.
“I’m in Vancouver because I moved for love. Have you ever moved across the country for love…?” she asked us with a smile. The blank response led her to wonder if we perhaps weren’t that romantic here in Manchester. We agreed. We laughed.
Accompanied by the superb warm tones of the accompanying semi-acoustic, she filled the room with her beautifully delivered songs, all of them steeped in soul and reminiscent of a deep sense of country tradition.
Carried on the back of the stunning strength of her vocal, her body language and glowing facial expressions betrayed her clear devotion to the music she was celebrating together with an infectious love of performing live. Tunes like the shuddering ‘Don’t Go Easy’ and bittersweet ‘Just For Now’ were enhanced to perfection by the accompanying guitarist, himself a jazz specialist (I couldn’t take my eyes off of that vintage guitar!)
“This is my story right here..” she breathed, without irony, before a haunting rendition of ‘When I’m Making Love to You’ detailed her romantic story, responsible for that huge journey across the provinces. Her fine, fine set meant that we got to share something of that journey with her. Hooked, I was (and it was more than just to do with being reared on Salford karaoke, I have to say!).
TUNNG. Three acoustic guitars, a banjo, four part harmonies and lots of odd bits and pieces of percussion? Ahh, yes, the synthesiser was tucked cleverly away behind the acoustic frontage to emphasise the organic feel of the jam, which took it’s cue from some kind of deep folk before blending seamlessly into the sonic reverberations of electronica orchestrated by not just the synth. ,but a children’s battery powered butterfly amongst other stoner toys.
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Despite one of the crackliest leads ever to grace the Night and Day stage, this six piece outfit held the packed house captivated throughout, as bodies began to sway in time to the tranced-out loops and delicate structures unfolding in the haze that the band create. Once they have you, then you bob and weave to the ebb and flow of their deep voyaging sound as it takes you from the edge of melancholy to the brink of euphoria.
Self-depreciating egomaniac in-jokes were shared with the crowd amidst frantic early signals from the band to the mixing desk, as Tunng took us through a wide range of emotions on their gentle and ominous psychedelic journey. Was this deep folk for pot heavy free spirits, or psyched-out ambience for space cadet techno freaks? Slowly, their set intensified to touch upon the outer reaches of trance and the subliminal groove grew and grew until the melodies could barely contain the analogue bass pulsating within.
‘Sweet William’ was the pick of their shanty style jams, as the band slowed it down safe in the knowledge that devotees and casual observers alike would give them full attention.
Providing a sense of the absurd with the stuck-record loose mantra ‘Jenny Again’, we were almost pulled into a rendition of ‘The A-team’ theme tune as the improvisational feel of their bong-driven soundscapes oozed with a sense of the surreal, and then came the encore, a dance-orientated fusion of folk and house that soothed the soul and made you move all at once. A fantastic show, and one which could be appraised most accurately with the aid of Hughie Green’s clapometer (Blame my impressionable childhood memories!). Given the band’s sense of the bizaare, it probably wouldn’t have looked too out of place up there with the flashing butterfly and other ‘if it makes a noise, it’s a musical instrument’ type paraphernalia. Simply put, it was a fantastic night, even to the ears of someone not previously acquainted with the future funk phenomenon.
http://www.myspace.com/brightblackmorninglight
http://www.myspace.com/jillbarbermusic
www.tunng.co.uk
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