Haiku Salut’s music is lovely. And not in the dismissive British “That's lovely dear…” [subtext, “I'm busy and what you are presenting me with is merely average.”]. Actually lovely. They’re loopy too, but not in the twirl your finger at the side of your head way, just loads of loops and laptop effects to get the sound well and truly built up and all encompassing.
As multi-instrumentalists, the ‘stage’ seemed to have more instruments than would be required for three players; glockenspiels, ukuleles, keyboards, accordions, horns, drums, and plenty of electronic equipment for all the blips, blops and bloops that elevates their sound further. And, it being the launch of their Lamp Show tour, about twenty household lamps of varying sizes and shapes. Oh, and a scattering of mismatched TV sets.
A seated gig, it all felt rather civilised but relaxed at the same time. The girls didn’t speak throughout the set, so forgive me for not breaking down their set list; I can only describe it as like driving a few hundred miles though a diverse landscape while never noticing the road signs. Their music tinkled up and down the scales, trilled gently, threw beats through the floor and, occasionally, was a collection of sounds that didn’t quite fit together but sounded good nonetheless. And all this accompanied by the light orchestra that flashed and pulsed along to the music, a rather splendid non-auditory accompaniment to the proceedings. For those of you not quite sold, it's wasn’t all folksy twee twangling, there were a number of firmer numbers, if you will, where the pace quickened and the tone shifted.
It's not seen as particularly cool to admit liking a band because they make lovely music that makes you feel lovely, but who gives a toss. Haiku Salut are quirky, they are folky, they do love lamp, and they put on a damned good show.
Haiku Salut played at Nottingham Contemporary on Wednesday 8 October 2014.
Haiku Salut website
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