VILLAGERS
Institute, Digbeth High Street, Birmingham hmvinstitute.com | @hmvinstitute 14 February To successfully merge the brooding, soulful and often dark lyrics of Dublin singer-songwriter Conor O’Brien (pictured) with soft lush orchestral arrangements and forays into electronica, pop, country and other disparate musical styles is a challenge in itself for sure. Villagers, on their difficult second album, deliver with grace, producing a kind of Nick Drake meets Tunng at a Wild Beasts gig collision of sound in the process. The band of alt-folkers from Dun Laoghaire – signed to quality UK indie label Domino – have proven their longevity and taste for the eclectic with recent release {Awayland}, following up on 2010 debut Becoming A Jackal, which was shortlisted for the Mercury Music Prize, became a staple of BBC 6 Music’s playlist that year and delivered an Ivor Novello in 2011 for the title track. O’Brien is open about being influenced by Bjork, Aphex Twin and Radiohead amongst other crossgenre artists, going some way to explain the bleeps, glitches and samples scattered over the folk-pop of the five-piece’s first two albums. And by opening tours for Neil Young, Tindersticks, Tracy Chapman, Grizzly Bear and Elbow, as well as having a tidy list of festival appearances (sets at Ireland’s Oxegen and Electric Picnic in 2009 helped to propel the band to fame) under their collective belts, Villagers have honed their live show in to a powerful experience that moves heart and soul. What could be nicer for a music fan on Valentine’s Day, huh? LB 021