very very rarely have a problem writing a post, don't matter who its about I can write it at the speed of thought. But I swear I've been stymied by Welsh singer Cate Le Bon. Her second album, Cyrk, was released early this year and I completely missed it. Her mentor are the fellow Welsh friends Super Furry Animals and I dislike their name enough to have essentially ignored them over the years.
I even ignored Cate Le Bon because of her name. I thought she was probably Simon Le Bon's wife singing 80s hits in a reedy voice while her husband dabbled in production. But, hey, I was in search of a story and decided to give her current album Cyrk a listen. Ot is a weird, Welsh mix of modern folk, modern Goth and… er, the Velvet Underground.it was Pitchfork that made the Nico reference, and while Cate' has a similar range, Cate doesn't have the guttural undertone of Nico. Obviously, Florence Welch is perhaps a closer reference point but instead of the heavy orchestration, Le bon is more apt to use an English rock reference point. And the songs seem to flit between the two extremes.
So I went in search of Cate on stage, only to discover I missed her at Mercury Lounge in February and more fool me. Proof again that in the 21st century, you can't keep your ear close enough to the grounnd.
She will be back but till then, get hold of Cyrk, a first rate piece of magic rock for an anti-magical age.