Neneh Cherry : ByLarm Norway : live review

Neneh Cherry

ByLarm Norway

live review

Feb 2013

Photo by John Robb

It's been a long time since the classic pop shakes of Buffalo Stance, a pop record that was so of its moment that it defined the times perfectly musically and stylistically. A couple of decades on and Neneh Cherry still retains the kool. Age has made no impression on her and she still has that chewing gum swagger that made her the role model for a generation of hip girls who didn't want to play by the rules.

Last year she released a great album with jazz trio The Thing but tonight with Rocket Number Nine she is working on a very different space with dubstep flavours mixed with a live drummer and a bearskin hatted, great coat wearing, keyboard wizard who is live mixing and dubbing out the live sound while she gets all sassy over the vocal mic with her attitude delivery still perfectly in place.

There are moments when it infringes on the electronic end of Radiohead and even on the soundscapes of Autechre and there is an undertow of electro jazz skronk that never leaves the skipping boogie beat. The highpoint is a killer version of the Suicide classic Dream Baby Dream which is melted down to crank all it's sex and menace and subtley slips into the long, dark trip into the heart of rock n roll of the song where beauty and fear are entwined but stripped of all artiface and needless noise. Sublime.