Live Review: Youth Lagoon, Broods

New Zealand's Broods prove themselves stars laying in wait. Based on their debut EP release, the brother and sister duo are earmarked for big things and tonight it's obvious why. Caleb Nott's strong production builds the base that allows sister Georgia's stellar, silken vocals to shine. The punch of drums drives their late-night brand of spacious pop forward. Single Bridges encapsulates the intimacy of their sound for this enamoured crowd.
There's no flash or pomp when Youth Lagoon arrive onstage. Mute opens and immediately Trevor Power's one-man productions grow a life of their own. Each scratchy synth note is matched by bass rumbles and seismic cymbal crashes. The jangling Attic Doctor has Power cast as the vaudevillian offspring of Frank Zappa and Alice Cooper. The singsong, boyish vocals that make up a lot of the Wondrous Bughouse record are pulled out from behind the wall of reverb and effects. All the delicate little touches of his recordings become monstrous in a live setting. Ding Dong Lounge isn't the biggest venue in town and Youth Lagoon's music quickly fills every last corner with rollicking, rolling precision.
Each meticulous melody within Powers' personal little soundscapes has been carefully collated. The lo-fi rock of The Year Of Hibernation and the space-pop of Wondrous Bughouse are our invitations into his beguiling headspace. Tonight he cuts a singular figure surrounded by keyboards, synths and sequencers. Hunched over his creative little cocoon, what Powers lacks in movement he makes up for in quality and craft – it's presence through production. While it's impossible to separate the man from the music, Powers' backing band amplify his bedroom ballads into big, rhythmic beasts tonight. Every post-'whatever-the-fuck-you-wanna-call-it' moment of July, Cannons and Afternoon is allowed to reach its naturally euphoric crescendo. The heartfelt innocence of Seventeen's “Don't stop imagining/The day that you do is the day that you die,” only outdone by the repeated, “You'll never die/You'll never die,” of Dropla's zenith.
This evening is a testament to DIY recording and the ingenuity of home producers. Each one of Powers' psych-pop ditties is aired, dried and handed out on a lovingly handcrafted platter of ethereal rock befitting any big stadium the world over. But a packed Ding Dong Lounge will have to do for tonight. No one's complaining.