Sons Of Noel And Adrian
When: Wednesday 27th January
Where: Hoxton Bar & Kitchen, London
The Post-Folk Revolution Starts Here
At the intimate Hoxton Bar & Kitchen last night, a quiet revolution was happening, and then as Sons Of Noel And Adrian gradually gathered on stage, the revolution got loud, very loud, almost chaotic at times, and yet always remained beautiful and tightly constructed. Thus, a new genre was invented, post-folk.
As Alessi’s Ark drew her delicate and sweet solo support set to a close, she brought on some members of the mighty 10-piece band to follow. When she introduced Marcus on stage, of “The Sons,” for half a second I thought it was an extra special Mumford & Sons appearance – not out of the realms of possibility as there is some overlap between the scenes (both “Sons” played at the Laura Marling and Friends gig at the Royal Festival Hall). He was received with a chorus of “hot” from a small section of the crowd, (probably other “Sons”) and duetted on a stunning stand out track from the set. 3 more members of Sons Of Noel and Adrian came on-stage for the closer, with muted trumpet and clarinet in hand, whetting our appetite for what was to come.
With the breathtaking image of the full band assembled onstage, I was anticipating a sound far better than what I had heard on record, which to be honest I found a bit patchy and with some faults. However, I wasn’t expecting to be blown away like I was.
What made everything so epic was the way the unique combination of instruments and the contrasting vocal styles just gelled together so perfectly. The sounds from the instruments were so distinct, such that each tone, each timbre, each voice, each harmony just felt like they had been made to combine in that way and probably couldn’t exist outside as sounds on their own. The lead singer’s rasping voice is far from beautiful, but it is made for this context, to compliment some of the beautiful harmonies and swirling noises.
The song 'The Wreck Is Not A Boat' sets the scene for the band very well. They sound very much like they belong at sea. They are part of an even more sprawling collective living in Brighton, on the South Coast, and when they sing elsewhere about drinking 8 bottles of gin and wondering what state they’re in, it’s really not such a leap of the imagination to picture these 10 drifters getting wrecked on a boat, rocking perilously amongst the waves. The song commences with some sweet whistling and spidery guitar picking. Then it progresses into a dark, meditative sea-shanty. When the whistling returns, with a chorus of 5 harmonising whistlers and hypnotic, twinkly background music, it becomes a really stunning, uplifting and absorbing experience.
They push the boat out (sorry - unavoidable pun) so far that the outro to another song could easily have passed for Spiritualized during one of their most excessive wall of sound jazz wig-outs. They have songs in two and three sections that last close to ten minutes. So in its closeness to the post-rock sound, the post-folk tag works better here than anywhere it might have been vaguely touted around before.
It really is music that has to be heard live to be really understood beyond reading a collection of words like these. Their You-Tube clips don’t even come close to capturing it. I can’t really see them ever making it particularly big, but if they get the luck they deserve and start playing to bigger crowds, they might just get to cult status before too long.
Words: Stephen Paul
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