Jonathan Boulet

Jonathan Boulet and others have catapulted a new trend in music that harks back to mid 80s Ibiza. Stay with me now. Back then, certain DJs and clubs among the Balearic islands of Ibiza were playing an eclectic mix of dance music and indie hypno groove that was then popularised by Paul Okenfold and other in the UK calling it Balearic beat.

This style is that became rave music in the late 80s and early 90s and bands such as Happy Mondays and New Order were bands that performed such music. The style originally was mostly instrumental (think early Chemical Brothers) and the real essence of this style is the hypnotic trance-like vibe.

Repeated vocal hooks and beats that have a droning edge and slowly build up to a crescendo like that of the popular song ‘Born Slippy’ by Underworld.

Songs such as Animal Collective’s, ‘My Girls’ and Delphic's, ‘Counterpoint’ are fine examples of this style. Though most new bands doing this style (let’s call it indie-hypno) are electronic acts. Bands such as Sherlock’s Daughter and Jonathan Boulet that have a more traditional band structure have all the same indie-hypno vibe.

In fact I find the electro guys are a bit more vocal and pop single driven where Sherlock’s and Boulet have much more of a hypnotic touch about them which comes from the repeated vocal hooks and less verse chorus structure of their songs.

Sherlock’s Daughter are touring with Boulet and were fantastic tonight. They were a little more chilled out and had most of the audience sitting down. Though I don’t think it was really necessary as a lot of their songs had me dancing on the spot and the lack of space to move only meant people around me got kicked.

Sherlock’s Daughter have that great sound that is very interesting to listen to and party to at the same time. Look up their song, ‘Song for Old People’ to get a good idea.

Lead singer Tanya has that wispy type of vocal popularised by Bjork, Sarah Blasko and Julia Stone but is different enough to hold her own. Not only that but she is very captivating and really adds to the whole hypnotic thing about the music if you’re watching her at the same time. The band are very laid back and often joking while playing quite complex stuff perfectly. Very impressive and had I not stalled, I would have secured an EP before they sold out.

Jonathan Boulet’s set in comparison is like comparing a four cylinder Datsun slowly chugging down a long stretch of road to a V8 Valiant blasting out of a garage and hooning down the street.

The volume and intensity were all up for their set. Quite surprising when you compare it to how the CD sounds. Quirky pop gems with that indie-hypo trend I was talking about, but something got amped up in the translation when given to a whole band.

They began the set right into one of those hypo trance vocal hooks repeated over and over again, got the pace going. For much of the set there were four of them up the front singing and with the addition of a second drummer pounding on a floor tom out the front made for a very pagan, African rhythm, modern rave feel.

Unfortunately only a few people really got it. I think everyone there expected quirky, north of the river pop like Gotye or Architecture in Helsinki but what they got was this new kind of dance music and didn’t know what to do with it.

So the bands efforts to get the fans into singing along to some of the repeated vocal hooks in some sort of ritualistic ceremony didn’t quite come off. What was obvious though was that the audience were typical Melbournian. Intently watching every move the band made to digest and analyse later without really letting go and having fun with it. But it’s his first show here. Next time round Melbourne will understand what they are getting in for.

For that reason I think Sherlock’s Daughter stole the show. They were a lot easier to digest and were much more like the quirky pop folkies of north Fitzroy that NSC audiences are used to.

I am very keen to see how this new indie-hypno trend is going to take off though.

I’m hoping this is just the first wave of new acts to Melbourne that eventually make Melbourne dance to rock bands. C’mon Melbourne! I can’t be the only one!

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