The bombastic synth brass and (real) tuba of Anna Meredith’s opening number, ‘Nautilus’, feels weirdly outsized in the cosy basement of The Hug and Pint.
In the past, the song has been borrowed by Foals as the intro for stadium gigs, and Meredith herself is no stranger to much larger concert halls, as the former composer-in-residence with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.
But however much Anna Meredith’s music can come across as maximalist, brash or overwhelming, you realise that her venture into pop music is often actually a much more low-key affair, albeit one that delights in the excesses of sound, sounds that imitate system overloads, and madly overblown guitar solos.
A request for a cover of Erasure’s ‘A Little Respect’ (titled ‘ALR’) demonstrates this modest aspect of the music; Meredith’s rendition of the vocal melody refuses to follow the famous build of the original, refuses to go for the high note, while meanwhile the synth textures threaten to overwhelm the whole thing.
On stage, Meredith is refreshingly wry and understated: she’s charmingly self-deprecating, thanking her “mum and dad and school friends” for making up the audience tonight (it’s not true, to clarify) and asking if now’s “a bit too early to start flogging merch”.
While one half of the set is giddy, Final Fantasy style instrumentals, another half demonstrates Meredith’s unrefined, Moe Tucker-esque vocals, alongside those of drummer Sam Wilson and guitarist Jack Ross, in songs such as ‘Taken’, ‘Something Helpful’ and ‘Dowager’.
Amongst this, tuba player Tom Kelly can’t help but stick out, and it’s a unique aspect of the performance to utilise a conventionally ungainly instrument – to make a mockery of the idea of a brass section, perhaps.
The effect is of watching someone irreverently experimenting in front of you, and by the time the set closes with Meredith picking up toy instruments from a box and throwing them back again, over a borrowed Celine Dion melody in ‘Never Wonder’, it’s fantastically silly, but mesmerising all the same.
Words: Tony Boardman
