There’s something mechanical about the way the Fever Ray show starts, that wonderful rumble that opens last year’s magnificent debut album from Karin Dreijer Andersson. As the band lurches into If I Had A Heart the bass is deadening, it’s the kind of noise you feel as much as hear – for me it reverberates around the top of my stomach. Then you get to hear the voice, disconcerting and inhuman – pitch-shifted and bent out of recognisable form. Visually you get no clues either, you can barely see the band for the smoke and darkness that envelopes the stage. Instead you rely on glimpses – a sword jutting out of one band member’s back – the alien shape of Dreijer Andersson underneath her triangular headpiece. The sounds could be coming from anywhere, and anyone – it’s quite a bewildering experience.
From the darkness lasers dart, fanning out over the top of the audience, the dense smoke playing like clouds across the beams. The stage is barely lit by intermittent lamps, yet everyone is craning their necks to try and place what is going on. The music is at times simply superb, particular standouts being her masterful cover of Peter Gabriel’s Mercy Street and the epic closing sweep of Coconut. Sometimes the sheer volume stamps out some of the subtlety, particularly affecting Keep The Streets Empty For Me - some of the quieter runs are simply inaudible amongst the cacophony. For the most part though, the aural onslaught befits the dark and somewhat claustrophobic subject matter and it fills the cavernous Brixton Academy with ease.
Earlier in the night Zola Jesus performed to a healthy-sized crowd, the diminutive singer was a must-see for me after enjoying her recent EP Stridulum so much. In the flesh though, it seems a little rushed – she paces the front of the stage like a caged animal, lyrics seemingly gushing out of her. Her backing band are grinding out some serious noise, yet her voice is more than strong enough to rise above it – but it doesn’t really go anywhere, and the songs seem to meld into each other. One to catch again, maybe on her own terms.
Dreijer Andersson has said that this is likely to be the last we hear from her side-project for some time, instead heading back to an involved recording process with The Knife. If that is the case she has left an indelible mark on many who’ve attended these shows; demonstrating a rare talent for realising her dark imagination. A unique, engaging and enduring performance.
Rating: 
MP3: Fever Ray – Mercy Street (via I Am The Crime)
Photo: Rob Green @ Brixton Academy, 08.09.10
Setlist:
If I Had A Heart
Triangle Walks
Concrete Walls
Seven
I’m Not Done
Mercy Street (Peter Gabriel cover)
Now’s The Only Time I Know
Keep The Streets Empty For Me
Dry And Dusty
Stranger Than Kindness (Nick Cave cover)
When I Grow Up
Here Before (Vashti Bunyan cover)
Coconut
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