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Twin Zero
Yndi Halda and Textures
At Monto Water Rats, Camden Town
Face down in the carpet, left arm crumpled under my ribs, right arm protruding like a dead branch jutting from the grizzled oak that stands atop some fairytale hillock, tongue hanging, a slight drooling: this is me, eleven something pm, last night. I’m awoken only when the girlfriend gives me a kick to the midriff and utters an “Oi, how was the gig?”
“Whaaa…?” Russell Brand is somersaulting his skinny frame about my tellybox, sticking a phallic microphone into the faces of reality television worshippers; there are pins and needles from my left little pinkie to its corresponding shoulder. “Uuuh, gig?”
Flashbacks: a cool pint glass against a sweaty brow, conversations about the pluses and minuses of living in north London, Dutch headliners taking their life into their hands by stepping into Gray’s Inn Road, camera in hand, to get a picture of the evening’s venue. The Water Rats is transformed into a sauna, attendee moans and whimpers near drowning out the noise conjured by Twin Zero and Textures, the growling metal acts that comprise the key draw for the assembled black-t-shirted hordes. But, once home, its not the performances of these bands that spring to mind through an alcohol-and-heat-induced haze: it’s relative unknowns Yndi Halda that leave a permanent impression.
The Kent quintet take to the stage under a barrage of chatter and clatter, the chinking of glasses and wiping of trickling beads; once a guitar is coaxed into muted action, though, an immediate hush descends. Textural tones flutter from speakers either side of a stage filled by characters that look absolutely unlikely to move the uninitiated: a few members sport shorts, and at least is wearing flip-flops. Aesthetically they’re more Weekend At Bernies than Some Kind Of Monster, but theirs is a music that requires no window dressing: once the sole guitar, still weaving spectral waves of sonic majesty, is joined by violin, bass and drums, the effect is astounding. It’s the hottest day of the year both outside and in this sweltering room, but my arms are alive with gooseflesh.
Structurally, there’s little on offer tonight that the studied post-rock (sorry, but lazy pigeonholing is so now) student won’t have heard a handful of times already – songs are layered slowly, sections linked with skill but telegraphed by tell-tale actions: the switching of drumsticks, for example, from broad-ended beaters to their thinner, louder brethren. But originality isn’t a necessity when the execution of these twin fifteen-minute songs is so perfect, so wonderfully pitched at emotions that have no right to be stirring in such an inhospitable environment. Come each smooth sailing from convulsing waters to calmer seas, the crowd inhales deep: partially to send additional oxygen to a brain still trying to make sense of the last few minutes; partially because nobody remembered to breathe at all while such bloody-minded bludgeoning was before them.
Come the thirty-minute mark, the set’s rumbling climax, the violinist’s bow is all but destroyed; the decision to opt for shorts over full-length leg-wear appears to have been wise, too, as while the audience enthusiastically applauds from a pool of their own making, Yndi Halda don’t seem to have been affected by the insane heat held within these four walls. Minutes later they’re outside on the street, chatting to friends old and new, making the most of the time they have before piling into a van bound for Stoke-on-Trent. The next night will see them perform in Exeter, leading this writer to believe that either the band’s geographical sense is shot to fuck or they simply live to play.
From my living room floor, vivid memories seem aged beyond their mere minutes-long lifespan: Yndi Halda’s music already feels like an old friend, a drug that’s been coursing through these veins for years; that they're already greatly impressive is a fact humbled, rather, by the obvious certainty that they've the potential to one day be peerless. I mumble, pushing myself upright on my one good hand: “Oh, yeah, the gig. It was good… really good. I need to sleep, now.”
Rarely has post-show slumber been so serene, so devoid of annoying thoughts of the next morning’s work and its accompanying stresses. No better praise can ever be offered the way of a new-to-you band, surely.
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Yndi Halda
Were awesome in Southampton last week. Their ep is well worth getting your hands on too...
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yndi
fuckin halda, hells yeah! actually pulling off post rock without just using shit loads of delay like every other post bore band out there!
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yndi
Nice review Mike. It was a good night, even if the venue was hotter than the sun!
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:[
i saw all the other bands but missed yndi halda because my girlfriend concussed herself :[ .
we were both very sad about that situation. they sounded great from downstairs though. -
Nice Review
Agree with what you say, though I thought Twin Zero were rather mint too
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so dull
I find post-rock like this so cynical and calculated, not to mention formulaic. I don't know if YH are influenced by GY!BE (I'd wager they are), but they're so far behind GY!BE it's untrue (even though it's now 6 years since 'Lift Yr Skinny Fists'). What makes GY!BE so impressive is the samples, the huge range of influences, the drones, the field recordings. Yet all of this is absent. They have completley misunderstood what's so wonderful about GY!BE's music.
David Stubbs once wrote in The Wire that so much instrumental rock mistakes torpor for trance, and that's exactly what this does.
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nice use of 'torpor'
for some reason, I was thinking about this word on the W3 bus this morning.
That's not even a lie.
Your opinion, too, is noted; so too is your accurate comment about so many retrospective Godspeed copyists. I do believe, though, that I heard something in Yndi that suggests they can expand their current sound quite wonderfully.
We shall see, eh?
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They are good now.
But their potential is massive.
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they'll never
get a #1 with that name!
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ARRGGGHHH
Me and my mate were gonna go there to see Yndi Halda.
We got scared off by listening to textures the night before. We figured what was the point of going all the way to london if Yndi were gonna be playing for half hour and then a bunch of shite after them. :( oh well.
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Twin Zero were better
Although the loud bits of Yndi Halda were pretty stunning, the quiet bits didn't come across well at all. They weren't too lively either and looked a bit scared but they are new to live shows so that's to be expected!
The only problem is if you take out the violinist (who is supremely talented) then the rest of the instrumentation is basic to say the least.
Hopefully they'll grow with time though :)
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carbon copies?
If all those features were NOT absent in yndi, as you state, we'd simply have everyone moaning about another GYBE wannabe band. If people want GYBE, then they should go listen to them, and not moan that other bands don't sound like carbon copies.
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Amusing!
I find it so amusing reading the pure jealousy comments from all you twinky eating, dark room loving, review adicts.
Everybody in this world is influenced in everything they do, so quit stating the obvious!! Something you fail to appreciate and that simply cannot be contested is that Yndi have an awesome sound going on. Music doesn't have to be about complexity and one should never single out members as being better or worse. The whole point in a band is that you are a band. "oh.... the only problem is if you took away Cliff Richard the rest of the band would be shite!" So pull your chubby fingers out of your arse holes and see if you can all come up with something better! Much love
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Technically if you took away Cliff Richard you get the Shadows....
....who were a pretty good band for the times. Get your point though.
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What I'm saying
...is that YH are REGRESSING from GY!BE's formula. It'd be fine just to take one part of GY!BE's formula if they added something new to it. But they don't. They take one part of GY!BE's formula and stretch it to infinity.
This is the problem when bands define themselves by genre. Clearly, YH have set out to make 'post-rock'. They're following rather than leading. All the greatest bands- who lead- take influences from many genres.
Take GY!BE themselves; they mixed Glenn Branca, Sonic Youth, Steve Reich, Ennio Morricone, Swans, Labradford and many more: hundreds of artists from varied styles went into their sound and they created something totally new.
Clearly, not every band can do that. Most bands are going to have to get by on refining the sounds of groundbreakers such as GY!BE. They can be good bands but they'll never be great bands.
YH don't even try and refine though; they just rip-off and make tedious music.
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what?
what's a twinky? why am I in a dark room? how am I a review addict?
I expect I'm a tree-hugging, museli eating bike rider cos I read The Guardian, too.
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Yndi
I consider the way in which compare a young band's first release to that of a band who are all in their 30's naive and cynical. Godspeed have been part of a thriving music "scene" for almost as long as Yndi Halda have been alive. Where as Yndi Halda, I believe, wrote the tracks that comprise their current release when they were still in school. I find their music quite enchanting and also feel, like Mike Diver, that it possesses great potential as well as several qualities that Godspeed's music lacks. Godspeed are marvellous but they are also a bunch of commy tramps.
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naive AND cynical?
make your mind up!
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hmmm
i think you've misunderstood us a little. email us for a proper discussion.
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OH!
I had no idea they were playing. RUBBISH.
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