His name will eventually channel you to a goth music. Apparently, he is not a Siouxsie whisperer. Daniel Woolhouse or as known as Deptford Goth is a South London-based musician. His stage name doesn’t mirror of what his music would sound. ‘Goth’ is a name that he picked for his MySpace and ‘Deptford’ is a name where he went for a primary school. For Deptford Goth, being a musician is simply making a balance of his own music. He mixed all of the samples to make it sound like a real-life instrument. And some of his best works come out of a bedroom. Literally.

Woolhouse lived his music in a different two world. By day, he spends his time being a teaching assistant and by night, he takes a drive as a singer/songwriter. He grew up in the Britpop era and messed around by writing a guitar pop song in his early teens. While he was busy blending with britpops, he found himself a new influence of making music, Neil Young and Bob Dylan.

For a fan of emotive pop, Woolhouse must have seemed not like a newcomer. In 2011, he produced an EP, ‘Youth II’, via Merok Records. The EP contains of four songs which are being tied strongly with an influence of synth pop music and a touch of R&B music. Most of Deptford Goth’s works has a strong approach with his emotion and introspective lyrics. In his debut album, ‘Life After Defo’, he steps up his music to another level of an emotive pop. His music pleasantly reminds us to The XX or How To Dress Well, and of course, despite of the comparison, Woolhouse still does it with his beautiful originality. One of the finest songs from this album, ‘Union’, describes a lot of love and breakups, but amazingly, we don’t find it lousy becaue this song is complemented with a haunting vocal.

We see Woolhouse’s work as a complex art coated in a captivating record. You may name him as another version Bon Iver, How To Dress Well, or The XX, but we find Woolhouse has turned Deptford Goth to a sensitive music worker who will blow your mind. Rebecca Nicholson of the Guardian wrote his music, “Sensitive, synth-nurturing young men of a delicate timbre were all over music a couple of years ago, and this saturation makes Daniel Woolhouse, aka Deptford Goth, a difficult sell: the music is dreamy, he’s pensive, and he sings as if he’s mortified at the thought of being overheard.”. With songs that closely will become everyone’s anthem of broke-ups, Deptford Goth’s songs are just going to be there to accompany your bittersweet memories in a classy way.

Enterprise, a local band, was chosen to fill in the opening for the night, steaming up the tragically condensed crowd with a percussion/electronic-influenced genre. The music was tremendously upbeat; it was obvious that the five men dressed in plaid shirts surely knew how to pull off their songs, of those including LHFT, On a Mission, and the crowd’s favorite, Raindance.

As soon as the set was ready, Tom Krell paced his way to the stage, with the company of Aaron as the backing musician and Nick as the projectionist. It was a nice surprise that it almost felt like a lonely one-man show, with Krell standing on the spotlight along with the visuals playing in the background, but it seemed to be the perfect touch for the show he was about to bring. Before it started, Krell expressed his gratitude for being at Malaysia and his thoughts about how love should be celebrated and be graced upon no matter what orientation was involved, which was fairly an eerie intro but the crowd’s cheer and applaud were inevitable. The first song played was “Suicide Dream 1“, although it sounded a tad bit too devastating for an appetizer, the crowd was almost instantly beguiled by the heavenly falsetto voice and the ambience created.

“Running Back” and “Cold Nites“, were played whole-heartedly, with a crystal-clear flow of emotions that not all musicians can afford; Krell was definitely one of those who can. His performances were very autobiographical; it showed that the songs he brought were from a personal perspective that gives out a one-of-a-kind persona. Unlike the title of the single, the set was in fact warm and welcoming, Krell’s attempt to befriend the crowd was noted. A new song was played next called “No More Death“; which was quite a treat for the ears, strummed by thrashes of loud beats, bringing a fresh change of the music’s radiance. “Suicide Dream 2“was then performed, followed by a more enlivening vocals through & “It Was You”. The brief minutes of bright optimistic music ended swiftly when “Talking To You” was about to be played, opened by a short intro saying that the song was specifically written when Krell was in a state of confusion, described it as a “duet that I wrote with myself”. Most of the songs performed were from the second album, Total Loss, including “Ready for the World” and “Ocean Floor for Everything“, that appeared to fit precisely with the a cappella setting. The crowd was drawn but unlike in most concerts, there were very few sing-alongs, and for a good reason, thus the performance was delivered in the utmost capacity that intently captivated them. It was impossible to witness Tom Krell sing his heart out without a set of Bambi eyes.

“Set it Right” was a spot-on parting song, both the kaleidoscopic visuals projected on the background and the lyrics orchestrated flawlessly. It was a very short one-hour set, that was concluded with an encore of  “Blue“, sung a cappella, that basically summed up the theme of the night. Despite the fact that How to Dress Well’s performance was a bit distant and hasty, it was definitely worth to see. The performance was beyond melancholic that it measures up to be called as a work of art rather than just another gig. (Erlangga Primaputra)

How To Dress Well :

Another diamond in the ceaseless pool of self-recording and lo-fi indie musicians who wants to make it big in the real world, How to Dress Well has definitely caught the hearts of many music enthusiasts with his ethereal/R&B sounds, embraced in a distant falsetto vocals. Fellow indie music fanatics in Kuala Lumpur will have the chance to watch Tom Krell perform his faultless tunes in a live intimate setting brought by The Bee at Publika.

As a philosophy graduate from Brooklyn, Tom Krell started his music career by uploading free EPs from The Eternal Love in a blog project that has captured the attention of the online audience and gained fans along the way. How to Dress Well finally released an official album debut, Love Remains, in the fall of 2010, with some tracks that were released in the very first EP. Being described as ambient yet cryptic and melancholic; almost to the point of being devastating, How to Dress Well have turned heads of the music reviewers, giving very positive response towards his first album. Love Remains was also rated as 19th in Pitchfork Media’s list of The Top 50 Albums of 2010.

Continuing his emerging eminence, How to Dress Well released Just Once EP in 2011 and Total Loss in 2012 as his second studio album. Though having undergone a slightly risky change of music style, progressing from being emotional with the intentionally static audio effect into a more synth, radiant and refined aesthetic, How to Dress Well has successfully satisfied the listeners and reviewers, including singles such as Cold Nites and & It Was You. The second album, which has also received mostly a four-star rating from renowned critics, was listed as 33rd Top 50 Album by Stereogums.
Upfront Series by The Bee at Publika is kindly inviting us to live-witness the ambient How to Dress Well on the first of March of 2013. Judging from previous gigs from the Upfront, it is undeniable that Tom Krell’s performance will be just as tempting and heart-throbbing, so don’t miss it!

Date : Friday, March 1st, 2013
Venue: The Bee, Publika, Kuala Lumpur
Tickets: RM 78
Tickets on sale at The Bee Outlets (Jaya One and Publika) and Rock Corner, Bangsar Village 1. Entrance opens at 8 pm. Fair warning that this intimate event is 18+.

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Grimes :

Kuala Lumpur’s music enthusiasts are indeed lucky in these premature weeks of a new year. Upfront, a series of intimate live-show brought by The Bee, Publika, will be presenting another indie sensation, Grimes, as the next star after previously holding both successful gigs of 65daysofstatic and The Vaccines.
Claire Boucher, or popularly known as Grimes, will be touring around Asia starting from early March 2013, radiating her psychedelic-pop sound to countries including Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, China, Taiwan, Korea and Japan.

Harmonized in a fluctuating way between contemporary synths and classic baby-voice vocals, Grimes have proven to create a musical genre of its own, described by Boucher herself as “ADD music”, adapting its frequently changing characteristics. Her live performance does not only have the sense of musical escalation, but more of a visual art performance as Grimes herself is not only a talented musician but a visual artist/director.
Debuting with her first album, Geidi Primes, in 2010, followed by her second album, Halfaxa in the same year, Grimes continues to stun indie-tronic fans with her out-of-the-world music with her newest album, Visions, released in the January 2012. Visions has received a great deal of attention and successfully listed amongst the Best Album of the Year, which The Guardian described it as “a masterpiece in gonzo pop that is weird, original and derivative at the same time.”

Influenced by quite a few drastically distinct music styles, starting from electronic, pop, goth, R&B, and even medieval, Grimes ascends with Vanessa and continues to impress the musical industry with two of her hypnotizing songs Oblivion and Genesis, from her album Visions. Her sense of visual and self-directing music videos is also one of the charms of Claire Boucher, as being very different and unpredictable in the current music scene.

Upfront presents Grimes
Date  :    March 12th, 2013
Venue  :    The Bee, Publika, Kuala Lumpur
Tickets :
 Presale tickets – RM108 (sold out)
 Regular sale tickets – RM128
Tickets on sale from December 15th, 2012 at The Bee Outlets (Jaya One and Publika) and Rock Corner, Bangsar Village 1. Entrance opens at 8 pm. Fair warning that this intimate event is 18+.
So are you already fired up for a psychedelic and alien-influenced sound of the enigmatic Grimes? Then go and get the tickets, pronto, as it will be one of Upfront’s yet another not-to-miss live events.