in::music – The Carrchy

Esplanade Recital Studio

Last Friday

It said The Carrchy on the ticket but one could have been forgiven for thinking it was a show by another band.

On their debut album Sunshine Over The City (2007), female singer-songwriter Keli and producer Fly concocted electro-pop that showcased her delicate and ethereal vocals that were reminiscent of Heavenly Queen Faye Wong’s.

The title track was shot through with an airy lightness yet enveloped in sadness. But the two had greater ambitions than simply mining this vein of sunny melancholia. Over the course of the record, they proved to be adventurous musicians who were willing to take unexpected twists and turns.

In a live setting, the duo decided to go for a more muscular sound and added a drummer, a guitarist and a bassist to the line-up. Unfortunately, this only served to pummel Keli’s voice into submission.

The pixie-ish singer struggled to make herself heard and also had problems with pitch. At one point, her brows furrowed in concentration as if straining in competition against the music. It made watching them a somewhat stressful experience.

They never seemed to settle down completely after that shaky beginning and transitions between songs were clumsily handled.

There was also little audience interaction as Keli was not one for much banter while the others barely uttered a word. While introducing their new song Ripple, she admitted that they were reserved people who did not know how to express themselves when they liked someone.

She added self-deprecatingly: “I think we’re so boring.”

The switch to acoustic guitar on this and another new song provided an all-too-brief respite, as the reduced volume and the melodic mid-tempo numbers finally gave her voice room to breathe.

It seemed rather odd that the new material was headed in the opposite direction of the harder edged sound that was unleashed for most of the night.

Still, this was probably a good thing as the rock band persona was only convincing in parts. It worked, for example, on the track Red, where Keli seemed to let loose a little instead of being engaged in battle against the music.

Despite covering more than 10 songs during their 65 minute set, they inexplicably omitted Sunshine Over The City. Perhaps they were saving it for an encore that the three quarter filled recital studio was not exactly hankering for after a disappointing showing.

While the new songs were promising and boded well for The Carrchy’s next record, as a live act, they were very much still a work in progress.

(ST)