Following Brett Jensen’s review last month, I decided to discover what all the fuss about Kaiser Cartel was about. The male-female duo were playing in Los Angeles on Tuesday night so I went to the small and intimate place called the Echo, that actually fits perfectly to this type of music. When I saw them, before they started playing, I automatically thought about a mirror image of the White Stripes, man on drums, woman on guitar, which turned out not to be exactly the case since they exchanged the roles later on for a few songs.
As soon as they started playing, I knew I had made the right decision to come, their sound is the incarnation of harmony and their melodies as diverse as indie rock.
They are from Brooklyn, but they introduced one of their songs as written about Silver Lake, the LA neighborhood where they were performing, and if their band name seems intriguing, it is just a combination of their two last names, Courtney Kaiser and Benjamin Cartel, as honesty seems to be what they want to communicate, I mean their music transpires openness and sincerity.
They are only two on stage but their sound is so full, and satisfying you would think that more people are playing and that you are listening to layers and layers of music; they seem to accomplish a lot with very little.
Courtney’s voice is exceptionally bright and poignant, whereas Benjamin’s voice wraps hers in a beautiful and warm way, a combination that touches your sweet side at the first listening (I had never heard them), and makes them really sound like two true folk-rock icons. How long have they been playing together anyway? Forever?
Some of their melodies (because they have some melodies!) are playfully bouncing from her to him to her, others are more quiet and reflective like ‘Oh no’ (I’m pretty sure they played this one), with this powerful ascending sound carried by Courtney’s voice who does it for any melody she sings to. And their influences seem to be very large as I could hear more rock in some songs, with sometimes powerful drumming, like for ‘Caroll Street Station’, and, if I dare, ’Worn out Nervous Condition’ reminded me Fleetwood Mac.
There are many bands I did not appreciate at the first listening, some are definitely an acquired taste and it’s actually a rare thing to be captivated the first time, but Kaiser Cartel’s music engages you right away, effortlessly, and pleasure is hard to resist to.
And they sang their last song completely unplugged, leaving the stage and meeting with the public, while continuing quietly singing ‘Memphis’ a cappella, making intimate eye contact with people one by one in such a direct way it was borderline intriguing. It was beautiful and bold in a unique way, like a personal serenade everyone got, a creative way to connect more with people and to make their music resonate even more in their public’s lives.