Apr
28
Written by:
carrie
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Saturday night, the Cavendish Arms and nicely tucked away off the main road at Stockwell there is a fantastic hidden gem of a band within its four walls.
That gem is a four piece band from South East London called the NYCO Project. On stage, the perfectly formed crowd is welcomed to the front of the stage by lead guitarist and vocalist Ben, female bass and vocalist Zahara, with their female keyboardist and male drummer tucked nicely behind. They waste no time breaking into ‘Blown’ the first of a string of songs that are individually defined in their own right by their unique sound, an undoubted sign that NYCO Project are an excellent band.
‘Blown’ serves up a refreshing indie rock sound with a psychedelic fuzzy grungy edge, capturing your attention from the first note. Interest levels are turned up half way through the song when, in an unexpected key change, the song turns the corner becoming a foot stomping number with a heartbeat bass/vocal rhythm. Looking across the front row (all seated, an unusual but welcoming touch), everyone is tapping their feet and nodding in appreciation to the beat.
The second song of the set, ‘The New Machine’ is reminiscent of Arcade Fire, rolling out a female vocal, perfectly intertwined with a piercing guitar lead. Singer Zahara sings with a vocal range that wouldn’t be out of place with most quality female alternative vocalists and adds even more ammunition to her talents by picking up rhythm guitar in place of the bass guitar used in the first song (with a nice fluffy pink strap to boot).
Singer and lead guitarist Ben is excellent on ‘Fade Away’, a meaty riff-fest of a song that drips with the blues throughout and is rounded off with a fantastic guitar solo, a solo that Jack White himself would be proud of...in fact the song itself wouldn’t be out of place in a White Stripes set. The beauty of this band is that from one song to the next the audience is presented with a different tone and feeling to what went before it. The creepy low-fi number ‘I Lost My Car’ only adds to the versatility of a set that offers great value in the music money bank.
Closing number ‘She's only Carbon’ starts off in a low key manner, the drummer continuing his excellent and powerful style by cleverly increasing the tempo in line with the rest of band, initially giving you the sense that a creature of the night is creeping up on you, only instead of a bite on the neck you receive a gentle hug instead. It sums up the set, you never know what’s coming next...a positive thing for any quality band of course.
With that the band exit the stage to my left and leave the crowd with a definite sense of intrigue, anticipation and certainly in my case the desire to hear more. NYCO serve up a variety of excellent tunes and enough twists and turns to leave you wanting more. A joy to behold.
http://www.myspace.com/thenycoproject
http://www.wix.com/nycoproject/the-nyco-project-00/contact#!__gallery
Copyright ©2011 Phil Fitzpatrick