music mule.co.uk

The atmospheric but far from impressive sounding Camp Basement has seen two London debuts by two of our favourite new artists in as many Monday’s. Last week Toro Y Moi stepped up to the play and last night was Wild Nothing‘s turn. Also like Toro Y Moi, on record Wild Nothing is just one, namely Virginia’s Jack Tatum but both DIY artists chose the wise option of bringing a band in tow for their live dates.

First up a quick mention to opening London act Becoming Real whose brand of percussive electronica they’ve labelled ‘Ghost Step’ impressed in parts without ever fully falling into place this evening. Still, one to watch perhaps.

So then tonight Jack Tatum aka Wild Nothing lines up centre stage on lead vocals and guitar and is joined by a guitarist/keyboard player, bassist and drummer who add the requisite layers to Wild Nothing’s superb Cure tinged guitar pop and Smiths-esque melancholy.

A solid sounding new song aside it’s tracks from Tatum’s glorious debut album ‘Gemini’ that the sold out crowd eagerly lap up as the beautiful ‘Chinatown’ (apparently not a mainstay of their set) gets an early airing. ‘Confirmation’ and ‘Witching Hour’ follow hot on its heels as the band start to settle in and crank out some gorgeous shimmering guitar lines and those dreamy keys that hover mist like throughout their songs.

‘Live In Dreams’ is perhaps becoming their most popular tune (it’s line of “We’ve got eyes on the back of our heads” even being hand picked by Upset The Rhythm as the slogan for Wild Nothing’s August headline at the far more worthy Luminaire) and tonight it evokes a suitably euphoric crowd reaction, for a Monday.

‘Summer Holiday’ though, for us at least, is still the winner tonight with Tatum’s instantly nostalgic vocals and ‘”wo wo wos” capping some amazing 80s riffing that we could listen to into the wee hours if it weren’t a Monday, again.