Photo: WENN.com
Despite their first single ‘Mozart’s House’ impressively reaching No.17 in UK Singles Chart, electro-classical ensemble Clean Bandit still feel like a relatively undiscovered secret.
They are so good that it’s hard to understand why more people don’t know about them. Having released two EPs, Mozart’s House and Dust Clears, tonight's set was comprised of tracks fans are familiar with from their collection of weird and beautiful videos on Youtube and a selection of unheard songs that hopefully will be part of an upcoming album.
The band’s chemistry on stage was evident, musically they seem to have struck up a perfect formula with their musical hybrid of genres and instruments. The combined forces of drums, decks, a cello, and violin, fronted by a range of effortlessly soulful singers, created something entirely new and uncliched.
The band performed ‘A&E’ and ‘Dust Clears’ to great reception, and followed with a cover of the SBTRKT and Little Dragon track ‘Wildfire’ which genuinely sounded better than the original. The R&B beat and heavy classical strings of ‘Rihanna’ and the sweetly soulful ‘Nightingale’ proved the band’s artful ability of unifying the sounds of house, garage, pop, electro, soul and classical, into a successful reworking of an entirely new type of dance music.
Their performance of the new and unheard track ‘No Place I’d Rather Be’ was a brilliantly disco infused dance track, and perfectly matched the soulful vocals of their goosebump inducing singers.
Clean Bandit are more like a musical collective, with ever changing additional singers, they work the stage in a way not dissimilar to Rudimental, but they succeed in creating a sound that’s more unique, innovative and weirdly very sexy. Having been signed to the same label, Black Butter Records, they create a similar aesthetic, something that feels very cool, fresh and urban.
By the time they reached their encore, with an incredible cover of the dance anthem ‘Show Me Love’ by Robin S and Mozart’s House, for which they bought out the track’s original male singer, itwas sad to the end. Their electric and faultless performance has left all counting down the days until their album release.
