Harlem
Sun 10 Jan 2010
Shake It Up
Incorporating the ecstasy prescribed by The White Stripes’ early raw blues-soaked rock and roll and the charming glow of ’60s pop warmed through vinyl, Harlem distills that glorious free spirit so many bands are chasing but so few have managed to pin down. Skewing their songs with love and heartache, their jangly party rock and roll anthems bubble with a ghetto trash punk aesthetic, with hooting and hollering through echoey vocal effects and shimmying, shattering drums. Even in their slower moments (’Sometimes’ and their cover of Royal Trux’s ‘Junkie Nurse’), there’s a frenetic quality inherent in the jovial drums and speedy guitar, and in even more introspective moments they can mimic the freak folk of contemporaries such as Grizzly Bear. But while they’re a multi-pronged act, it seems Harlem’s real spirit is in their party music. Their forthcoming debut album Hippies, slated for release in April on Matador, seems set to continue that party.
