Young Dreams and Sinkane at Hoxton Square Bar and Kitchen

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.

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: