The Upcoming
  • Culture
    • Art
    • Cinema
      • Movie reviews
      • Film festivals
    • Food & Drinks
      • News & Features
      • Restaurant & bar reviews
      • Interviews & Recipes
    • Literature
    • Music
      • Live music
    • Theatre
    • Shows & On demand
  • Fashion & Lifestyle
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
  • What’s On
    • Art exhibitions
    • Theatre shows
  • Tickets
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Fund us
    • Contact us
  • Interviews
  • Competitions
  • Special events
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Cannes
      • Sundance London
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • Tumblr

  • RSS


CultureMusicLive music

Young Dreams and Sinkane at Hoxton Square Bar and Kitchen

Young Dreams and Sinkane at Hoxton Square Bar and Kitchen | Live review
4 April 2013
Anne Higgins
Anne Higgins
Avatar
Anne Higgins
4 April 2013

You wouldn’t immediately realise what lies in store for you when you enter this buzzing cocktail bar in which people recline on sofas and enjoy good food. Yet push back the plush black curtains at the rear and you enter a venue throbbing with live music.

Sinkane at Hoxton Square Bar and Kitchen

Sinkane at Hoxton Square Bar and Kitchen

First up are six members of Norway’s melodious collective Young Dreams. Not satisfied with simple indie guitar-music, we are presented with an eclectic array of instruments, including maracas, tambourines and dreamy vocals. Their orchestral synth-pop songs deserve to be making waves across the music world outside of Scandinavia; certainly the artful music videos for Fog of War and First Days of Something are worth watching if you can’t see them in the flesh. There are moments of Brian Wilson-inspired haunting vocal powers and epicness, and the wealth of sound shimmering outwards from the boys on stage is reminiscent of Animal Collective’s My Girls. But Young Dreams have their own charm, recently releasing their debut album Between Places.

The change of pace is rather startling then when Ahmed Gallab’s four-piece Sinkane takes to the stage. Young Dreams, ethereally cool and clear in their harmonies, are replaced with hot and heavy twangs of Afro-funk. It may be cold outside but Sinkane is about to heat things up. Influences from Gallab’s native Sudan and travels around America are apparent. Now a local Brooklyn boy, his jazzy album Mars has come in the wake of touring as a member of Caribou, Yeasayer and of Montreal. Now nurturing his own musical creation; Sinkane is a deeply thought-out and well-constructed effort of love.

With Gallab’s experimental disco beats and lilting vocals, this is pick-me-up music at its best. Telling the crowd to “enjoy the vibe with us”, we have no choice but to follow his lead. The sunny happiness displayed by the guys grooving and bopping about the stage soon kicks things off; the band can’t keep still and neither can the audience. Every sound, although experimental, is enjoyable; we have twangs, silences, vocoders (Making Time), impressive guitar solos and awesome moments of reverb. So powerful was Sinkane’s performance that the wonderful song Runnin is guaranteed to continue reverberating around your head long after.

Verdict: ••••

Anne Higgins

Photos: Sarah Tsang

 For further information about Sinkane visit here, or for Young Dreams visit here.

Watch the music video for Sinkane’s Runnin here:

Related Items

More in Live music

Tokio Myers at the Forum

★★★★★
Daniel Amir
Read More

Lisa Stansfield at the London Palladium

★★★★★
Adrian Peel
Read More

Hinds at Electric Brixton

★★★★★
Jake Cudsi
Read More

Gregory Porter at the Royal Albert Hall

★★★★★
Ed Edwards
Read More

Bastille at the Royal Albert Hall

★★★★★
Selina Begum
Read More

The Vaccines and Whenyoung at Alexandra Palace

★★★★★
Musanna Ahmed
Read More

John Barrowman and Seth Rudetsky at Leicester Square Theatre

★★★★★
Bev Lung
Read More

Alela Diane at Union Chapel

★★★★★
Cristiana Ferrauti
Read More

Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats at Shepherd’s Bush Empire

★★★★★
Jake Cudsi
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Tickets

Theatre tickets

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • Project Gastronomía: How will Londoners eat in 2050? A symposium on gastronomy and multisensory design
    Food & Drinks
  • Gregory Porter at the Royal Albert Hall
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Bat Out of Hell at the Dominion Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Tribeca Film Festival 2018: On the red carpet with the stars of Westworld season 2
    Cinema
  • Half Breed
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Mayfly at the Orange Tree Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Sherlock Gnomes premiere: A chat with James McAvoy, his co-stars and the film’s creators
    Cinema
  • The Outsider
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Tokio Myers at the Forum
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • The Outsider: An interview with director Thomas Meadmore
    Cinema
  • Sherlock Gnomes premiere: A chat with James McAvoy, his co-stars and the film’s creators
    Cinema
  • Tokio Myers at the Forum
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Beast
    ★★★★★
    Movie review
  • Lisa Stansfield at the London Palladium
    ★★★★★
    Live music
  • Bat Out of Hell at the Dominion Theatre
    ★★★★★
    Theatre

Instagram

Something is wrong. Response takes too long or there is JS error. Press Ctrl+Shift+J or Cmd+Shift+J on a Mac.
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Fund us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • New London restaurant openings and pop-ups
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Subscribe
  • What, when, why

Copyright © 2018 FL Media Ltd

Moby-Dick at the Arcola Theatre | Theatre review
The Leisure Society at Rough Trade East | Live review