Brother Sister [FringeTIX]
Brother Sister @ The Edinburgh Castle Hotel (Band Room)
11:00pm, Fri 6 Mar 2009
As I saunter into the Band Room and park my arse on one of the pair-of-lips-shaped sofas at the back of the room, I try to remember why I chose this show; something to do with a cello, I think. It matters not – I’m here now, ready to partake in whatever’s on offer.
There’s a little bit of a video looping on a screen behind the stage – trees zooming past in rendered monochromatics. On the stage, there’s a plethora of keyboards & technical wotsits; Brother looks after the loops and keys, straying over for a little drumming; Sister’s stuck on the keyboards all night. Their first song is curious; there’s something cutesy-gothic about it, which is neatly contrasted by the pair’s clean white clothing. Some dirty samples, grubby loops, Brother’s mournful vocals.
It’s not half bad.
The second track yields some well-defined beats, and more sad vocals – this time from Sister. They’re a bit screechy, though.
This isn’t bad at all. In fact, I’m really quite enjoying myself. Sure, there’s generally not a lot sitting atop the looped percussion; but the loops are dense, intricate. Samples are bold, heavily treated, often clipped, yielding a dirty – but satisfying – sound, and every now and then a gorgeous groove emerges from the mix to catch you by surprise. The tunes are delicious, the arrangements (including the occasionally harpsichord-ish keys) delightful.
The vocals, though, are… hmmm. I’ve already used the word “mournful” once, but it was tapped at least a dozen times in my notes from the show. Lyrics seemed emo-ish in nature, but occasionally veered into ethereal and dreamy territory, perforated with snippets of melancholy. Brother didn’t have much of a vocal range, but towards the end of the night Sister started hitting the high notes that (for some reason) I’d been waiting for… but they’re thin, desperate.
And that fits in just fine. I walked out of this gig a pretty happy man, snaffling their latest CD (and a freebie CD – though the disc itself was mysteriously absent from the jewel case) and feeling pretty good about it. Dante and Xavia Nou made a very positive impression, and not a cello to be heard (their “full band” set is on the 20th of March; this was “electronic night”).
…and it’d be remiss of me not to wish Sharon a belated Happy Birthday for the night ;)