JEN CLOHER | LIVE PREVIEW
Swn Festival @ Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff, Sun 1 Oct
The Swn Festival comes up trumps again by unearthing more gems that us musos should be au fait with, bringing Australian singer-songwriter and label owner Jen Cloher to Clwb Ifor Bach to kick off October.
Cloher has somehow passed me by, despite just releasing her fourth album, and being the partner of fellow Antipodean rawk’n’roll wordsmith Courtney Barnett. As well as sharing a life, the two share a fair few band members: Sloane the bassist, sticksman Sholakis, previously of Barnett’s band, and Courtney herself plucks the strings in Cloher’s band. So you get a fair idea of what to expect – the lazy melodies of Velvet Underground, with a touch of Kurt Vile and Patti Smith and a side order of Pavement. The two share a similar sound, though Jen Cloher’s records date back to 2005; so arguably Cloher is Barnett’s muse, rather than the other way around, though there’s room for both artists and Cloher has more depth to her catalogue.
As a primer for the gig, start at third album In Blood Memory, which was nominated for the Australian Music Prize (the Oz version of the Mercury). Anyone who writes a song called David Bowie Eyes that ends up as melodic and witty as it does, deserves to be listened to. The heart-shattering Hold My Hand closes the album, written about her father explaining to her mother, who had Alzheimer’s, how they had met – a story that Cloher had never heard before.
There’s personal experience poured into every song, and Jen will no doubt be featuring a few numbers from her recently released and self-titled fourth album, which covers the myopia of world politics and the denial of equality – something that will chime with us Poms in Brexit Britain. The album’s Analysis Paralysis includes these pithy words: “I’m paralysed / In paradise / While the Hansonites / Take a plebiscite / To decide / If I can have a wife,” in reference to the right-wing ethos of Australian politician, Pauline Hanson – set to an easy chug-a-lug new wave rock sound. The band can really kick it too, if the double drumming of the Sonic Youth-esque Famously Monogamous is anything to go by.
Cloher and Barnett co-wrote the lovely countrified song Numbers about their relationship. A quick YouTube search unveils a nice live performance of it, showcasing Cloher’s sweet singing, though she can also sing in conversational style, like Patti and Courtney. We might be treated to a couple of those ‘two peas in a pod’ moments on stage.
This may be the first time that the Barnett formula has been recalculated for Wales, but Cloher is definitely worth the devolution, and an equal adversary.
words CHRIS SEAL
