Warpaint
Deaf Institute, Manchester
24/10/2010

For any rising group, it’s the hardest thing to keep a grasp of; that crystalline period of their career where an energy greater than the sum of their parts binds them together, a catalyst to a section of time where they seem unstoppable in performance and on record. And it fades fast; since The xx’s fragile constructions have found themselves thrust into a glaring light they don’t seem quite so alluringly delicate anymore, The Drums meanwhile look to be falling as quickly as they rose – exiting guitarists dulling naivety and tattering dreams.

Warpaint are different though. The L.A. four piece’s time is undoubtedly now, but unlike the aforementioned two acts there’s no visible surprise or bewilderment at their sudden public arrival. Tonight at the Deaf Institute there’s a startling confidence to them that blows away the sold out crowd just as much as their drifting 80s 4AD-soundscapes.

There’s an intangible force at play in the way Theresa Wayman has the audience responding to her calls before a note’s even played, or how drummer Stella Mozgawa and bassist Jenny Lee Lindberg are interlocked so hypnotically that you strain to hear them despite the delicious harmonies provided by Wayman and fellow vocalist/guitarist Emily Kokal. But more than that, it’s the way they function as a whole; their aesthetic a knowingly elegant creature that uncoils and licks at its audience, drawing them in amidst a sensual embrace of floating voices and spindling guitars.

The bulk of this evening’s set comes from the exotic murk of recently released LP ‘The Fool’; opener ‘Warpaint’ proving an early highlight, its bassline flickering into life through a droning gloom. It’s not about individual tracks tonight though; it’s about the overall impression left. Warpaint seem unstoppable, and the nonchalance with which they accept that only stands to make them more irresistible.

Simon Jay Catling