'Rousing orch-folk' is what we noted when we saw this lot play live. Yes, we took notes. We don't do that for just any band
Hometown: London.
The lineup: Ralph Pelleymounter (vocals, acoustic guitar), Josh Platman (bass), Jon Willoughby (drums), Ian Dudfield (electric guitar), Ben Jackson (synths, keyboards).
The background: To Kill a King ? not to be confused with To Kill the King, a hardcore band from New Jersey ? are a five-piece specialising in folk-inflected pop-rock who have a one-off single out on Ben Mumford's Communion label. Not usually our bag, we know ? Odd Future's drill'n'muzak, Jensen Sportag's jazz-funk revisited and the mutoid R&B of the Weeknd and Holy Other are more our tipple ? but we thought we'd go and see them play in London because we'd heard one of their tracks and it sounded pretty good.
And they were great. The singer was soulful, though not in the sense of acrobatics and melismas but of a voice capable of conveying feelings without yawping or bellowing. And the band played these multilayered songs that were complicated in structure but went straight to the emotional point, which in many cases was sharp. We weren't alone in thinking this: Laura Marling, who was there, was moved to dancing rapture (actually, her friend was fiddling with her hair at the bar, but she definitely swayed to the beat), so too was Ted Dwane from the Mumfords (the bit about swaying, not hair-fiddling). "Rousing orch-folk" is what our notes said this morning. We took notes. We don't do that for just any band.
What else did our notes say? They said that some of the TKAK cast resemble 50s greasers or extras from West Side Story while the frontman looked like Richard Thompson and wore a flat cap, this scene's equivalent of the Pete Doherty titfer. One of the songs had the rickety gorgeousness of Orange Juice and another bore the lustrous chord progressions of Aztec Camera, which made us very happy indeed, while another made us think of the National and Arcade Fire and reminded us to start our own Academy of the Overrated.
The standout track, Cold Skin, was about the most thrillingly conventional piece of music we've heard all year and made us write the phrase "powerfully plangent" on our phone while pogoing to its pithy piquancy in the dark. The cover of Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Maps was surplus to requirements because with that track and the one after, a chilling number titled Wrecking Crew that probably wasn't a paean to Hal Blaine et al, they'd done enough to make us believe in indie guitar rock again. All this, plus the promise of literate lyrics (the PA wasn't the best so we couldn't make out the words), though we're still none the wiser as to why there are two fat painted bald men dragging each through a council estate by a piece of rope in their video.
The buzz: "They recall the endearing folk melodies of Mumford & Sons while also capturing the emotional resonance of Frightened Rabbit" ? fadedglamour.co.uk.
The truth: This is what we were expecting Frankie and the Heartstrings to sound like.
Most likely to: Seek redress for the years of indie landfill.
Least likely to: Address the corruption of Parliament during the reign of King Charles I.
What to buy: The single Fictional State was released this week by Communion.
File next to: Mumford & Sons, Frankie and the Heartstrings, Mystery Jets, the National.
Links: myspace.com/tokillakinguk.
Thursday's new band: Leopard of Honour.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/jun/01/new-band-to-kill-a-king
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