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First on stage were DJ Erol Alkan’s protégés Fan Death, an up and coming Canadian synth-pop act named after a South Korean urban myth (summarised: if you sleep near a fan, you’ll be dead by morning). On record, it is clear to see where much of the past year’s hype has come from, as the likes of ‘Veronica’s Veil’ and ‘Cannibal’ take refreshing cues from 70s disco, in the form of synth string stabs and funky bass lines.
Officially a duo, energetic core members Dandilion Wind Opaine and Marta Jaciubek are joined by three additional players, fleshing out their sound with violin, drums and synths. Apparently quite new to playing in this format, they seem somewhat divorced from the disco influences, with focus changed towards a brasher side, characterised by powerful drumming and wild dancing about the stage. Clearly making a positive impression on much of the Academy crowd, it will be interesting to see whether their debut LP (due later this year) lives up to their hype.
Vampire Weekend’s return to Leeds came just weeks after their sophomore album Contra hit the top of the charts on both sides of the Atlantic. Announcing how happy they were to be in Leeds (calling it the ‘best show of the tour’, no less), Ezra Koenig and co were in electric form.
Running through most of their two albums, roaring highlights ‘A-Punk’ and ‘Cousins’ got the crowd jumping, whilst their coming together at the front of the stage for a chin-stroking interlude of ‘Diplomat’s Son’ and ‘Taxi Cab’ showed off their broader influences. Playing against a backdrop of their new album cover, the tastefulness of the performance (chandeliers for lighting, clean guitars for sound) hinted at their dignified education, whilst some interesting lighting (including a shadow-effect borrowed from Sigur Rós) and vocal effects on 'California English' pointed towards something more experimental.
Probably Vampire Weekend’s greatest live accomplishment lies in the perfect reproduction of their recorded sound. Keyboardist Rostam Batmanglij played his ornamented harpsichord and piano parts as if in a recital, and the rest of the band, with great dexterity, never missed a beat. Only the crowd’s contribution to the night distinguished their stage performance from one of their records: from the joyful falsetto of opener ‘White Sky’ to the yells of older tracks ‘M79’ and ‘One (Blake’s Got a New Face)’, what seemed like a choir of voices throughout the Academy bolstered the night’s atmosphere every bit as much as the quartet on stage.
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