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Mark Nicholls looks like he’s just crawled out of a ganja-thick student share house, all floppy fringe, black drainpipes and flannelette shirt. His gaze is simultaneously vacant and intense, like a modern day Ian Curtis. Then he opens his mouth, and it’s impossible not to be agog at the sound that comes out of the shabby-chic frontman of Manchester based four-piece Keith. At times Nicholls is a pitch-perfect reincarnation of an 80s foppish icon; close your eyes while he’s singing on ‘Hold That Gun’ and you’re nearly there. Then Keith pull some Stone Roses Reni-esque funk beat drums from nowhere, a Happy Mondays piano riff or two and a Simian-inspired twist here and there. ‘Mona Lisa’s Child’ is bleak sorrow that spins into thumping bass-led disco, while ‘Down Below’ is 90s indie perfection.
It’s not often that a relatively new and unknown outfit can really excite a cynic, but Keith are magical. Tonight, on the eve of the release of their first album proper, these boys are utterly brilliant. Surely before long (and perhaps aided by a name re-think), their unique, gorgeously crafted offerings will propel them over the parapet of obscurity. Martin Craft has a lot to prove tonight if he doesn’t want to be outshone by his support act. The co-founder of defunct Sydney-based band Sidewinder has now finally got his act together.
Craft started Sidewinder with his brother Nick and the band was signed when Martin was only 15 years old. The group was together throughout the 90s and became a highly respected institution in the Australian lo-fi indie scene. Tonight, with his long-awaited album fresh on the shelves, ex-pat Aussie M.Craft is a long way from the psychedelic spacey rock of his past. Having been signed up by 679 Recordings (home to artists as diverse as charming Scots scruffian King Creosote, The Futureheads and rough-nut rapper Plan B), Craft is now a styled and suited soloist. There’s not a fuzzy whiff of Ride or My Bloody Valentine-inspired pop anywhere, and thankfully the lanky locks have gone.
‘Silver and Fire’ is understated beauty, drifting through folksy Nick Drake couplets, before ‘The Soldier’ explodes on a totally different level. It’s up the front for the eye candy as two indie girl pinups in pretty frocks frame Martin. The girls whisper the odd backing vocal and tink the xylophone, but the shaking of a paper fan into the mic is just plain ridiculous. Craft and his cronies seem a touch disorganised (er, tipsy?) having lost the set list, but it’s a sweet and spectacular show nonetheless. The set culminates with an hilarious but brilliant cover of the song ‘She Drives Me Crazy’ by the horrible Fine Young Cannibals, before Martin and his chums slip away into the night. M.Craft flits between delicate nu-folk, pretty vocals and cutesy experimental indie pop. Tonight’s performance indicates the wait for the release of Craft’s album has been well worth it. There’s certainly a place for him in this hemisphere at least.
