French born Lætitia Sadier stopped in Brighton for the final date on her short UK tour. She is best known as being the majestic vocalist in London group Stereolab, perhaps one of the most influential alternative bands from the 90s. Since then, Lætitia founded a Bordeaux based post-rock band called Monade, and has also lent her unique vocals to many collaborations with the likes of Blur, Serge Gainsbourg, Atlas Sound, Common and most recently Tyler the Creator. Lætitia began her solo career with the release of ‘The Trip’ in 2010, and has since had four brilliant releases with newest being ‘Something Shines’, released September this year. After going through her amazing back catalogue, it filled me with great anticipation for her intimate performance at the Komedia Studio.
Starting the show was Leeds artist, Alisia Casper. A difficult performance to take on board on a mellow Monday night. Living with Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue, it is phenomenal that she is perusing life in music and art, when others may not have the courage to. Although this does depict the overall mood of her songs, and for someone who didn’t know her background this could be quite a full on and shocking set. Mostly in a minor key, she repeats a minimal melody of a few notes on electric guitar, and sings her very personal and depressive poetry on top – to put it mildly, it had a considerably arresting affect. With songs about dying and being lonely, it is hard to know how to react – obviously admiring how artistically open Alisia is, but also feeling a tad awkward. Check out the art that Alisia does, on her website alisiacasper.com, it is truly amazing and very emotive.
The Lætitia Sadier trio take to the stage and quickly get on with their set with two songs back to back, which firmly reminds everybody why they came to see her in the first place. Their unique sophisticated pop, that any unknowing ear could tell is French (never a bad thing), takes a variety of influences from psych, kraut, and shoegaze, as well as the Stereolab sound. The music is transfixing and the audience can’t help but sink into their luring melodies. Throughout the set, the trio seemed to play games with the audience making sure everyone were still on their side – seamlessly pausing midway through a song and keeping silence for a good 10+ seconds, or having a massive rock out with screams and all. This help created a playful and jokey atmosphere, even if the crowd weren’t always sure how to react.
With loose melodic hooks and no set choruses, the band had an effortless free flowing nature to their performance. The masterful Emmanuel Mario (on drums, keyboards and vocals) and Xavi Munoz (on bass and vocals), had a definite jazz undertone, playing atop of Lætitia’s light and whimsical rhythmic guitar which she plays upside-down. Lætitia’s highly recognizable voice was truly beguiling throughout, switched between English and French, producing her remorseless highbrow lyrics which covered everything from her left-wing political views to her loss of loved ones.
At the end of a beautifully dreamy set, the band is met with a triumphant reaction from her loyal fans, one of whom has been to every gig since 1991, and when Lætitia said (with tongue firmly in cheek) that it wasn’t the best reaction they’d had on the tour it only became more raucous. If you can get the chance to see the Lætitia Sadier trio perform their French Disco, take it, as it was frankly a wonderful show. To quote a member of the audience, “They could be Gods in-house band”.
Iain Lauder