Reviewed on Saturday August 27
Little is known about Tinker, the production project for one Christopher Bristow that made its live debut last May. Already making waves on Soundcloud, it’s interesting to see Bristow’s compositions unfurl within the live setting. He’s complemented here by a drummer and a female vocalist, both of whom impress with their proficiency in handling their respective instruments. A tender, stripped back cover of Drake and Rihanna’s ‘Too Good’ translates beautifully, while single ‘Fill The Field’ is pure bliss release that deserves to break through into the collective conscious. With a lot of potential shown, here’s to its fruition.
It’s been said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. If this is so, Laura Marling is overwhelmingly flattered by Clea Pratt, who performs mononymously under her first name. Given, Marling isn’t entirely idiosyncratic – many have been like her before, and many more will continue to be so. The similarities, however, are simply too great to ignore. It’s the vocal timbre, the chord progressions and it’s even the way said progressions are played on guitar. This is music built entirely out of another’s mould, and it’s entirely detrimental to whatever individuality Pratt may have had to offer.
It’s safe to fear the worst in the moments before Cub Sport start their biggest headlining show to date in Sydney. The night previous, the band sadly had to cut their set short due to frontman Tim Nelson’s voice loss, and there was every chance in the world that he would not be able to recover in time.
However, the doubt slips away into the dark of the night the second the curtain pulls back and the opening harmonic refrain of ‘Sun’, the dream-like opener to the band’s This Is Our Vice LP, rings out with the utmost of clarity. Nelson is on the level. Indeed, if Nelson’s health wasn’t public knowledge and went without being acknowledged by the man himself, the show could well have just been seen as business as usual.
Fortunately, in case you’ve not been following the trajectory of the band of late, business is good. Like, really good. ‘Come On Mess Me Up’ is the lighter ballad we didn’t know we needed, ‘I Can’t Save You’ is synth-pop paradise and their rendition of Kanye West’s ‘Ultralight Beam’ is inspired and soulful. Cub Sport are the voice – try and understand it.
