Crack

Nedry’s career to date has walked a curious line between original and derivative. Their debut mini-album, Condors, originally released in 2009, had The Guardian comparing the three-piece to the xx and excitedly billing them as “the first mainstream dubstep indie band”, whatever the hell that’s supposed to mean.

An undeniably interesting, punchy and at times breathtakingly pretty listen, it’s nonetheless difficult to sum up Condors to the uninitiated without reaching for a series of obvious touchstones. Something along the lines of, ‘imagine if trip-hop had taken place after dubstep, and two blokes fond of post-rock noise had hooked up with someone who fancied herself as Björk’.

Playing a mid-evening, tour-opening set to a Thekla audience seemingly trimmed in favour of beer gardens by the scorching late-September weather, Nedry appear keen to show off the advances they’ve made in the meantime.

A taut, nine-song performance finds frontwoman Ayu Okakita and guitar/electronics blokes Matt Parker and Chris Amblin, who founded the group back in 2008, leaning heavily on fresh material.

Condors’ brooding, stepping A42 makes an early appearance and gets an appreciative response, but the less familiar tracks sound as if Nedry have been paying attention to the last couple of years’ developments in UK dance music. While beats remain skeletal, sub-bass hefty and occasional guitars spiky, there’s a nimbler, more varied tempo to the new stuff that bodes well for the second long-player In A Dim Light, due out in early 2012.

Stagecraft-wise, there’s still a little something missing. Okakita is magnetic while unleashing the vocal range responsible for those Björk comparisons, but when she stops singing she seems unsure quite what to do with herself. This diverts attention onto Parker and Amblin, whose charisma levels are as you’d expect from two backline producer dudes.

These are nitpicky gripes though. As the metallic, percussive Havana Nights draws things to a satisfying close, Nedry seem musically well prepared to deliver on their early hype.



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Words: Alex Turner

http://www.myspace.com/nedrymakesmusic

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