It’s a bit dim in Village Underground. The performances this evening largely let the music and visuals do the talking, projectors and hidden faces over flashing lights and energetic movement. Nordic Giants have gained a reputation as one of the most emotional bands to watch, with the blend of stunning music and well chosen vocals occasionally moving audiences to tears. On the release of their first full length album, Nordic Giant’s reputation has managed to mostly fill the rather large Village Underground with a good number of people heading down to check out the support.
First on the lineup is electronic artist Foreign Skin who’s largely sample based performance was pleasing on the ears. In terms of the performance there wasn’t an awful lot going on, just some button pushing to bring the tracks to life but it’s clear the original compositions were stunning, making use of some interesting sound to create a soundscape which wasn’t oversaturated allowing the audience to take in everything. Following on from her was tour support athousandfurs who, in a nice change from the usual guitar/bass/drums lineup of most three piece bands, featured two guitars and drums. At times they resembled a light version of Radiohead, the falsetto vocals of the frontman really standing out. The songs were obviously intricate, although I did feel at times like some songs dragged on a bit, the sound not really changing. Nevertheless, they seem to be a relatively young band and I think they’re definitely a bunch to keep an eye on. I don’t doubt that we’ll be seeing something special from them soon.
To round off the night, and a hectic bank holiday weekend, Nordic Giants performed a lengthy set; having only previously seen them perform at festivals and having felt like they needed more time to really drag us into their sound, it was excellent to have the opportunity to hear more live tracks from them. Their music, as haunting and beautiful as ever, was perfectly matched to some stunning visuals and I found myself unable to look away from the screens for a large part of the performance. The pre-recorded guest vocals were done perfectly too, a lot of them featuring on the centre stage screen while the and performed – considering the pre-recorded nature of the vocals at no point did I feel like they were removed from the live performance and the music never felt like it was too reliant on click tracks. I guess having played many shows with visuals they’ve got performing in this manner down to a fine art. Some of the videos were compelling to watch too, Last Breath was moving when screened alongside the music and the short about the undertakers was an odd but excellent bit of light relief in the middle of the set.
Finishing the set with a collaboration with athousandfurs, the falsetto vocals sounded even better alongside Nordic Giants stunning backdrop, the additional guitar adding something distinctly stunning to the soundscape. While understated on stage, hidden behind masks and costumes of leaf, barely lit, often hidden behind drums/keys, Nordic Giants showed that, given a long slot in which to perform, they can absolutely engross you in audiovisual master pieces. The quality of the songs is phenomenal and the matching to the visuals is nothing short of perfection. They may not be an easy listen at times, you might find the skin under your eye slightly damp by the end of the show, but the reward for just standing, or sitting, quietly, watching and listening carefully, is absolutely worth it.
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