Last night I had the pleasure of watching the 5 piece lo-fi indie group Van Houten headline the launch party for Nice People magazine. This was my first encounter with the Leeds based bedroom pop quintet, having heard 1 single before but nothing since the release of their self-titled album Van Houten in September of last year. Their whole bedroom pop sound is an accumulation of influences ranging from Lo-fi/hypnagogic artists such as Mac DeMarco and Ariel Pink to psychedelic and shoegazey artists such as slowdive. They successfully combine the psychedelic twee and jangly pop sounds of the 60’s and 80’s (such as the Smiths, the Housemartins and the Millennium) with the 21st century bedroom pop space age production. The crooned vocals were given a shoegaze effect as they were mixed into the background of the hypnagogic wall of sound type live sound, this kind of live sound they used was very engaging for the audience as felt like it surrounded the entire audience throughout their set, feeling very ethereal and dreamy but at the same time very demanding of your attention. This was partly achieved through the production techniques on all of the instrumentals and sound effects and most notably the job of the sound technician who achieved this impressively just through standing in the audience with an iPad. Towards the end of their set they engaged in longer more jamming passages of their songs, notably switching up their sound from dreamy to shoegazey type grunge or noise achieved through feedback in their guitars. These elements of hardcore mixed in with trance-like wall of sound production created a great sound and showed their talent for a relatively new group. Additionally their appearance also looked to be important in forging an identity for themselves through slacker type vintage fashion reminiscent of Mac Demarco, others also sporting dyed hair and a mullet.
Their set being only short, around 30-40 minutes and considering me being unfamiliar with the bands music before seeing them, I’m unable to give the individual tracks played more coverage and analysis but overall was very impressed with their music, but more importantly their almost professional live sound which felt engaging and beyond amateurish. Definitely an up and coming Leeds group to look out for.
That’s a mood.
Judenell Social Blog 