Los Angeles — It was a night of international live premieres of two worthy new indie artists at Bardot’s School Night on Monday. Charlotte OC and Jack Garratt both performed for the first time in the U.S., and judging from their supreme sounds, it will not be their last visit.
Charlotte OC is an English gothic goddess perfect for the venue’s dark tint and gothic arches. She glided onto the small platform in a pitch-black, long caftan with a blunt black mane. Her appearance alone was enough to intrigue, and then she began to sing. With only a guitarist by her side, it was as though OC forgot that the room was packed with strangers: she was singing directly to her estranged lover. Her eyes shut and her arms rose to grab for some sort of comfort in her pain while she sang from her new Strange EP (on Harvest). There was so much anguish in her expressions that it seemed like she was about to break down into tears, but it was spellbinding.
Her creamy and rich voice was just one pull for the half-hour set —it was also the variation that had the audience enraptured. The first three songs were performed acoustically, then the synths and backtrack spouted before a keyboardist assisted on her last tune. The only complaint could be that the complex background noise was just that — noise. It is a special moment when a woman can entice a crowded room with just her vocals and hopefully OC will soon realize that anything else is just a distraction.
And then there was fellow Brit, Jack Garratt. Though Garratt’s few recorded tracks (on his Remnants EP) are special enough, seeing him build his multi-layered songs in front of a crowd is fairly astounding. With just his two hands, he manned the board, riffed on his guitar, smashed his electronic drum, and sung with gusto.
Garratt certainly isn’t the first of his kind. He is easily comparable to James Blake and the rest of the musicians who mash together intricate sounds to bend genres. What makes Garratt such an exceptional find is all of those complexities with the addition of bluesy soul. There is a grit to his songs like “Worry” — so much so, that even if he didn’t have his troop of synths, his soul-grabbing riffs and purrs are enough to make the eyes glaze over in awe.
Apart from whatever happens with his music, it is his attitude that truly made his live performance marvelous. Rarely does a musician openly express his excitement like Garratt did. The amount of times he said “thank you” and
“wow” would put a smile on even the most stoic person’s face. He giggled with glee and wanted to hug everyone in the room because he was that grateful for his well-deserved admiration.
The quirky beard and the ethereal beauty: they were so completely different yet equally excellent. The only thing left to do is play their EPs on repeat and impatiently wait for their return to the States.
Ariela Kozin
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