Photo: WENN
Following his success with Mercury Prize nominated band Portico Quartet, Nick Mulvey took the Latin guitar techniques he picked up in Cuba, paired it with his knowledge of ethno-musicology and created Fever to the Form: a Mercury Prize nominated album all of his own.
Mulvey is a confident yet casual performer and in spite of a relatively pared back arrangement, you become completely engulfed by his warm tones and intricate Latinesque guitar techniques. He delivers songs you find yourself getting lost in. The crowd are all left swaying under his spell as tracks like ‘Meet Me There’ and ‘Juramidam’ build up, only able to snap back to reality once the rest of his four-piece band drop out, leaving him as the solitary but powerful force.
Given his tentative style, it’s unsurprising when he announces he wants to conduct a little experiment. He brings out Eaves, his friend and support act, and the two of seek to up the intimacy levels by delving into the crowd and performing an acoustic cover of Gillian Welch’s ‘Look at Miss Ohio.’
Which is probably lovely, if you can hear it. Unfortunately this ‘experiment’ is wasted on about 90% of people, who instead are left with five minutes of deathly silence that kind of scuppers the ethereal vibe that’s been in play up to this point.
He wraps things up with the brilliant ‘Cucurucu’ – a name possibly deriving from the sound of a bird and extremely appropriate considering the worldly, almost tribal sound he’s adopted. He follows this with a surprise cover of Drake’s ‘Hold On, We’re Going Home’ and finishes up with his own song ‘Nitrous’ meshed with 90’s dance hit ‘You’re Not Alone’ by Olive.
If you want innovative textures and an experience that resembles something positively otherworldly, Nick’s your guy.
