Vienna Ditto comprises of Hatty Taylor with Nigel Firth — who play an intriguing mix of smoky blues, psychedelic rock and clever electronics.
The Dittos define their sound as “Sci-Fi Voodoo Blues” — and their hometown album launch show (perhaps one of three such ‘launches’ ) was held at the superb & impressive OAKFORD SOCIAL CLUB on Saturday night.
We went along to watch the spectacle:
Hatty has a furtive voice that emerges from behind the blue-velvet electronica and casts an unnerved eye at some of the squalidly sensual rhythms and those smoky-dusty guitars that emanate from the guitar/imagination of Nigel.
Her clear voice passes through the choking-coiling guitar waves with accuracy and some resolve — wary, perhaps because sometimes those guitars spume out majestic discharges into the Reading night-air.
Though (it is true) that the feverish guitars never really upset the carefully calculated rhythms or the neatly packaged numbers, danger seems to be never too far from Hatty’s keyboards.
Songs, like Hammer And A Nail seem to be based on enduring melodies — but they are also jazzy stews and sparkle with both ska and pop elements.
This was a collection of exotic ramblings, with intrusions of fuzzed-up guitar, but mainly cooly eloquent vocals that were perforated (often) by demented rhythms.
A memorable night.
Words & Images: @neilmach 2015 ©
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