SWN presents BRAIDS

SWN presents

BRAIDS

Tues 12th July
Clwb Ifor Bach
7.30pm-10.30pm
£6 adv from www.swnpresents.com / www.clwb.net / Spillers Records and seetickets

Second of the bands we're bringing to Wales for their first ever show after we fell in love with them at this year's SXSW. They played last weekend's The Great Escape where they were one of the must-see bands. Their debut album 'Native Speaker' is an absolute cracker and we're delighted to bring them into Cardiff for this debut show.

here's what you need to know...

BRAIDS was formed by four best friends in their last year of High School in Calgary, Alberta. Convincing one another to skip university, they stayed in the garage all year and practiced obsessively, even while their fingers froze during the cold prairie winters. Then, at only 18 years old, they took the bold step of moving across the country together to Montreal, where they began crafting their self recorded/self produced debut album Native Speaker.

Oscillating between density and spaciousness, BRAIDS' sound is not easy to define. The four members construct music which is ample and rolling, perhaps alluding to the landscapes of their youth, but filled with radical texture and startling immediacy, an influence of their more recent surroundings. Delicate layering gives their experimental pop epics just enough breath to playfully explore the depth of ambient melody. Though BRAIDS dives into moments of deep obscurity and sonic experimentation, there remains embedded within the music the hypnosis of an unforgettable pop tune.

Native Speaker, is the accumulation of months of meticulous craft-work to properly capture the band's entrancing live performance. The albums' songs were tested and shaped through numerous performances and lyrical massages, resulting in work that is brilliant in detail and structure. Averaging over 6 minutes and never coming in under 4, the tracks on Native Speakermaintain a deep seeded focus.

BRAIDS has an unusually collaborative dynamic, generating all of their sweeping sounds live in a synergistic maelstrom. Even their name, BRAIDS, evokes a feeling of something continuous and progressive, yet lush and intertwining. It implies the interweaving of all four members' musical ideas, favoring collective and equal input.

On January 18, 2011 BRAIDS put forth their debut album Native Speaker, a reflection of coming of age for the four intricately linked musicians. It captures a period of innocence and a period of change, yet comes off as strikingly mature beyond their years. Most importantly, it displays a yearning and striving to break through, an ambitious debut for a young band just getting started.

 

RATATOSK

The music of Ratatosk can be summed up in two words – miserablism and minimalism. If the initial motif is sufficiently sad and melancholy to
bring a tear to the eye, then it's explored and expanded upon with an almost zen-like repetition, using layered guitars, vocals, piano,
harmonium, melodica, musical saw, theremin, and pedal steel.

Ratatosk is originally a mischievous squirrel from Norse mythology, but in this context is some guy called Rhodri Viney. He has previously
performed and released music under the names Teflon Monkey and Broken Leaf, along with being a major player in bands such as Right Hand Left
Hand and Vito. He has also played live and on record with Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, Sophia, Brave Captain, Sweet Baboo, H. Hawkline and
many others.

Comments

[Sointu Myllys]

I never heard yet ratatosk however i love music,In Finland country i've been a dj,in fact i made a lot of music which i already mix it using my dj mixer and i find music really cool on mixing.Well nice article :)