Notts based, ever-minimalist singer-songwriters Daudi Matsiko and Dekker headlined a night of dreamy and introspective folk at The Bodega, with support arriving from local Chloe Rogers...
On a damp night on Pelham Street - textbook February - we’ve been sheltering from the rain in the dark familiar porch of The Bodega Social Club. LeftLion’s here looking for something to undampen the spirits, and we’re following the jazzy arpeggios that have been floating down the staircase.
And there’s the source: Chloe Rodgers, tonight’s opening act on a line-up featuring joint headliners, fellow Notts troubadours Dekker and Daudi Matsiko. Chloe sets a tone that will last the whole night - an amplified gig which somehow feels quieter than the world outside. Her hypnotic songs progress in layers, effortless vocals seeming to reach out from the same parallel universe as Björk or the Cocteau Twins’ Liz Fraser.
There’s lots to drink in here: lyrical nods to Greek mythology, soulful chord progressions, rhythms that build and interweave. Chloe makes the crowd lean in, sensing an antidote for the icy weather.
Each artist tonight is in their own routine - Daudi Matsiko is touring his 2024 record The King of Misery, Dekker promoting a new single, released last month: Not Feeling Up. These rather melancholy titles set the stage for a cathartic show.
Nobody’s really pushing their records tonight, though - instead the sentiment is that of three local musicians lifting one another up, which Daudi gets across by arriving on stage innocuously, thanking the other two for joining him at his suggestion, and hunching over his guitar to begin his set.
His sound feels like ASMR aftercare for a 40-hour workweek
If your ears are not fortunate enough to have sampled Daudi Matsiko’s brand of delicate, skeletal folk, you’ll know there’s no-one quite like him. His influences are many, but worn lightly: there are touches of Moon Shaped Pool-era Radiohead here, Jose Gonzales’ right-hand fingerwork, and of Miles Davis’ philosophy - it’s not just the notes you play, but those you don’t. Daudi’s opening song has regular gaps with no singing or guitar, in which he encourages his last phrase to echo in your ears. We’ve not got any pins with us to drop, but if we had, you’d hear them.
As soon as we’ve written ‘John Cage?’ in our iPhone notes, Matsiko namechecks the experimental composer, who famously treated silence as a musical instrument. Daudi has learned this, knows the value of volume - his voice can burst into boisterous life, but more often it’s a gentle thing which settles into the corners of the room. On this Friday evening, his sound feels like ASMR aftercare for a 40-hour workweek.
This isn’t folk music to immerse yourself in without thinking - instead, Daudi invites you into his world, sits you down with a smile (on a very comfy figurative chair) and tells you all about the joys and hardships that characterise his life, leaving nothing unsaid. It’s beautiful, calming and emotionally intense in equal measure. Near the end of the set he even manages both getting the crowd to sing ‘f*** off’ together, and to make it feel like a wholesome family roadtrip. It’s like Gareth Malone leading the Sex Pistols. ‘Am I nervous?’ asks Daudi, ‘I can’t tell.’ If he is, he’s soothed the rest of our nerves. This is music with sadness in it, yes, but it makes you feel that the world might not be so unforgiving after all.
Dekker is the second headliner, coming onto the stage under his (surely trademarked) massive straw hat. An émigré from the windy city of Chicago, Dekker’s now firmly rooted in our town, and finding success across Europe.
In our mid-pandemic 2020 interview we found a sensitive family man, still motivated to prod at artistic and musical boundaries.
"I’m a weird guy," is his opening gambit into the mic. Now that’s a confident start.
For all his professed weirdness, and music’s complexity, tonight he’s dropping a barn-storming, crowd-pleasing set. His rhythm guitar is thoughtful and propelling.
Front and centre is Dekker’s voice, which might be just at home in a jazz club or a Broadway show - his strong, emotionally charged vibrato brings to mind Nina Simone or Jeff Buckley in their prime. Dry humour keeps the emotion grounded - after one weighty number, he says "funny how there’s gonna be a disco in an hour and a half…it’s a versatile room".
Not Feeling Up is one of several highlights, this forward-driving single locked in by a retro drum machine. Dekker’s songwriting, too, is flush with winding chord progressions and a balance between belting choruses and gnomic lyrical mystery. The first two sets have set a high bar, but Dekker lands the whole thing with aplomb.
And, yes, there’s nothing new about local media singing the praises of their own town’s artists. But, even though it’s the start of the weekend, we’re leaving The Bodega clear-headed and confident: this is as good a crop of musical talent as Nottingham’s ever had. If you’re looking for thoughtful, punch-packing, life-affirming music, any one of tonight’s three artists should be going straight onto your listening list. We mean it, close this article and get them on right now. The technology exists. Your excuses are poor. It’s still early in 2025, but heading back into a frankly Baltic city centre, we’re thinking that it’s going to take a lot to displace Chloe, Daudi and Dekker as our favourite gig of the year.
Dekker and Daudi Matsiko performed at The Bodega on 7th February 2025, with support from Chloe Rodgers.
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