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Live Review
by SashaS
17-2-2005
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| Client: an aural and visual feast |
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Live: Client
Koko, London
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
Client: cyber-tunes and nihilism equal Britronica!
The annual NME tour - featuring Kaiser Chiefs, Bloc Party, The Futureheads and The Killers - should have included Client as they appear to be one of the most vital, informed and sexy outfits vying for mass recognition. The things have started looking up with the modest breakthrough of the Top 22 hit ‘Pornography’, with guest vocalist the former Libertine Carl Barat, but generally the girls are far from the mainframe.
They are also obsessed with the - major inspiration for a while - 1980s [but also cognisant of the 1970s]… Infinitely done more authentically than the whole lot of the NME nominated artists [the Award ceremony taking place tonight], with a scope the boys can’t even dream of. Intelligent, ironic and iconic is against the grain but that shouldn’t be the reason they remain a cult among the ‘futurists’ despite two excellent albums - ‘Client’ and ‘City’.
One of many aspects where these two women differ from the current field is that they do not write throwaway-jolly-ditties dominated by trad-subjects of ‘boy-meets/loses-girl’; their interest is urban living in all its mal-manifestations and dysfuncionality. It is frank/critical analysis of human foibles but presented in an icily erotic manner.
Uniforms mock the fashion angle, their relative immobility could be a comment on the state of pop, or an admiring nod to their Kraut-heroes, or singer’s silent protest against her ‘pop’ past [Sarah Blackwood was in Dubstar]… Whatever their reasons about the robotic/minimal mannerism, Client B [Sarah] and Client A [Kate Holmes] know to hit where it matters.
The tunes - such as ‘It’s Only Rock’n’Roll’, ‘Radio’, ‘In It For The Money’, ‘Rock’n’Roll Machine’, ‘Price Of Love’ - work wonders on muscles, soul and hormones, taking you inside a world where Deutsche and Brit ingredients are united in a heady brew: avant-electronica is mixed with human element [punk nihilism?] and seasoned with Euro-disco and synth-pop. And there are other angles: check out ‘The Chill of October’ on 'City'.
Alas, as always - at this place that, perhaps appropriately, was the New Wave’s live haunt in its Music Machine incarnation - their set is too short. Client’s slot is half-an-hour and it flies by like… well, just a few exhilarating chords. There is also a strange sense of this outfit being mobile and able to drop a tune as soon as they plug in. The trait of real musos…
Client have the sound, the look, elegance and charm, bringing it all to Erasure’s tour; well worth arriving very early for…
SashaS
14-7-2003
Client's album 'City' is available now on Toast Havaii/Mute
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