It was the sweet and flowery Carrie Haber's turn at The Platform this week, for which she brought along Johnson Jay and The eXwhY, a well-known and unknown artist to PAS respectively.
Let's start with Johnson Jay, then.
The tall and curly-haired Johnson Jay has some special guitar skills, cutting a fine line between finesse and suitability on his pleasant, tongue-in-cheek songs. There's always a story behind Johnson Jay's tunes, from the drunken phone message of Call Me When I'm Sober to the bar in Australia after which Boatshed Blues is named, and this adds a character to the set; it brings in the audience and makes them laugh, but, more importantly, makes them listen. The cheeky odes to popular tunes throughout the set, such as the comedic usage of Mamma Mia's oh-so-recognisable riff in My Swedish Girlfriend and the brief snatches of Smoke On The Water and - if I remember rightly - Enter Sandman during the crunch-driven and instrumental (and previously mentioned) Boatshed Blues, portray the kind of talent that can play anything it needs to.
The eXwhY are Jay and Andy, a thoroughly indie disco-looking pair, who sport unnecessary sunglasses and vaguely unusual haircuts while playing the sort of easy-going cross-genre music that you can expect but never quite predict. The eXwhY's stuff is very good, with the elements of disco, soul and hip hop blending well into the acoustic vibe. Andy, playing a nylon-string guitar and singing back-up, provided a good platform for Jay, and both men switched and interacted brilliantly for an entertaining and soulful show.
And so, on to Carrie, the red-headed and red-lipped Malteser with - and this is no exaggeration - an incredible voice. Carrie's stuff is reminiscent of Kate Bush with a sprinkling of Bjork, with the former's sopranic vocal style and borderline new romantic feel linking to the latter's unconventional lyrics and structure to create an outlandish but spectacular combination. This, in particular, for Me Oh My and, to a lesser extent, the brilliant Those 3 Words. Look them up on her
MySpace account for full-band sample versions. You won't be disappointed.
It looks like PAS is becoming a bit of a breeding ground for supergroups. First, there was the drunken jamming between The Fancy Toys and Tinlin on the terrace at Westfest, and now we can add the fact that Carrie invited Johnson Jay back on stage to add his guitaristry to a couple of songs. Johnson Jay, apparently, is receiving singing lessons from Carrie in return for guitar lessons, so watch this space for what will presumably become prog-acoustic, considering Johnson Jay's stories and Carrie's song-inspired drawings, which she sells and gives out as prizes. A tasty prospect if ever there was one.
The Platform is part of the
Portobello Acoustic Sessions, and is held every Wednesday night from 7:30 at The Metropolitan bar, Westbourne Park.
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The PAS Diaries: The Platform Presents Carrie Haber
The PAS Diaries: The Platform Presents Dom Scheggia