Meet my new favorite band. Sylvan Esso stopped by NYC last week as part of their debut album tour and brought some infectious energy with them. Amelia Meath, folk singer for Mountain Man, pairs up with electronic music producer Nick Sanborn and give birth to a contender for catchiest album of the year. Intricate and gracious downtempo electronic beats replace instrumentals in what could have been another fun indie folk record but ends up being so much more. There’s a lot of fun stuff to digest here, and can be had at home on their self-titled album out this week. Prepare to be thoroughly impressed by the amount of human emotion in Meath’s lyrics and the way she maneuvers through to the electronic arrangements of Sanborn, you will dance to every song in this album, and you will have a hard time not pressing the repeat button.
The pair has an immense amount of stage presence and energy, before their set they danced off to One More Time by Daft Punk and incited people to join in on the dancing. Every single song had Amelia show off her groovy dance moves, and Sanborn wasn’t too far behind. These guys take much pride and love the music they make and have a lot of fun playing it live, with them on stage there’s never a dull moment, and the crowd (including yours truly) loved every minute of it.
The openers to the show were Elizabeth Rose and M O T H E R. Elizabeth Rose is an electronic pop musician, and some of her songs reminded me a little bit of Little Dragon’s, bright, colorful, and kooky electronic pop tunes. M O T H E R is a mysterious band I’ve never heard of (they only have two songs up on their Soundcloud page), they’re based in Brooklyn, and their songs are hazy, brooding, and hypnotic. Both great sets that kept a chill atmosphere at this West Village venue.
Listen to Sylvan Esso’s hit single Coffee, M O T H E R’s incredibly catchy single Easy, and Elizabeth Rose single Sensibility.