Narc. Magazine Online
Reliably informed
Matthew McDonnell enjoys a captivating night of indie pop from the North London rockers
Image: Sorry by Thomas Jackson
I’ve been waiting a long time to see Sorry live again since I saw them at the Boiler Shop some years back, especially in a more up close and intimate venue like The Cluny. The support band were Hank, a distinctly 90s sounding grunge rock group with a penchant for fuzz and lots of it. They blend beautiful instrumental passages with super-saturated guitar tones to create a dreamy, distorted haze: think Mazzy Star with the gain on full.
Then came Sorry, they wasted little time with pleasantries, instead diving straight into Right Round The Clock, a swaggering and slick re-imagining of Mad World by Tears For Fears. This song had the crowd up and dancing straight away and I could have sworn I saw a wry smile spread across lead singer Asha’s face, seeing everyone swept up in the song. They carried on this momentum with Jetplane, a dark and frenetic song with a slithering sub-bass highlighting Asha’s spoken-word vocals. The occasional pop and squeak of electronic percussion adds to the unsettling feeling of this track, the Hot Freaks motif being a favourite of mine. From here the energy was brought down with There’s So Many People That Want To Be Loved, a mellow and heartfelt track about disconnection, a wanting for something more. The verse has a jaunty call and response between Asha’s vocal and the guitar, then the chorus takes on a haunting and mournful quality with the addition of keys and strings.
I urge anyone who hasn’t listened to or seen Sorry live to do so. Behind that lounge lizard persona, there is a lot of hard work that goes into these songs, and the end result is something both unique and captivating in equal measure.
