Still Corners
The Lexington, London
07/06/2011

Sometimes it’s the simplest gestures that speak loudest. Foreign Born’s Matt Popieluch is a pretty static prospect to behold onstage with his folk-pop solo project, Big Search. But you can’t help being moved by the openers’ Fleet Foxes-like harmonies and gentle melodies that make this space above The Lexington feel as cosy and intimate as your own living room.

On the other hand, on record London’s Still Corners have the ability to make any room feel like an autumnal forest lit by white shafts of cold sun. Or something like that. But seriously, we dare you to find a more gorgeous band currently doing the rounds. With all the dreamy shimmer of Beach House or the 1960’s nostalgic ache of Best Coast, Still Corners interweave ghostly, ethereal mists with warm, smudged summer haze to create something indefinably eerie yet beautiful.

‘History Of Love’ might display innocent dream-pop leanings, yearning guitar lines and a melody literally akin to kicking up the fluffiest powdered snow. But for the most part, live their material takes on an unexpectedly dense quality. New song ‘I Wrote in Blood’ for all its beauty also makes your skin crawl with its frankly terrifying incantations while the breathy ‘Never Fall In Love’ drags itself groggily through heavily perfumed, hipstamatic frost. And though Tessa Murray’s voice floats above the music as light and pure as a layer of frothed milk, hypnotic drumbeats, psychedelic visuals and melancholic organ drug the mood on standout track ‘Endless Summer’.

Undoubtedly some of their wide-eyed purity is lost on stage tonight, but this is no bad thing. It just means that instead of the gentlest of touches, Still Corners make more of a heavier impact than expected.

Dannii Leivers