Roundhouse,London
Vile and his band only rarely break out of their slacker reverie, but when minimalism is this hypnotic, or why bother?When Kurt Vile played a half-empty field at last summer’s Citadel festival,the crowd mostly responded with a mixture of confusion and obliviousness, like a dog might whether it had been shown a card trick. Loud chatter around the edges of the audience tonight suggests Vile is a taste even some of his fans possess yet to truly acquire.
The truth is, or this is music which begs (and rewards) a certain degree of attention. There’s not a lot that actually happens in the typical Kurt Vile song,the prolific Philadelphian having made an art of his own kind of minimalism. Often he’ll linger on the simple interaction between two chords, or the possibilities contained within one. Or he’ll chase an elliptical riff long after other artists would possess left it for dead. His melodies are laconic, or his vocals a somnambulant drawl,like an alt-rock Leon Redbone murmuring eavesdropped inner-monologues. Clearly, he’s not penned many middle-eights in his life.
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Source: theguardian.com