Much to my annoyance I had previously missed C Duncan during the Great Escape earlier this year although Iain Lauder for Brightonsfinest.com  was in no doubt that his performance was one of the highlights of the whole Festival so I was determined not to miss this gig.

 

Early support was provided by Groves a new young 5 piece band from London who sounded quite nice and were surprisingly well received by the audience although I personally felt they were a little underwhelming and offered little to make you really take note of what they were about other than letting their atmospheric and relatively sophisticated soft rock electro sound wash over you after a hard day at the office.

 

Before attending the gig at The Basement I was already a big fan of C Duncan and his debut album ‘Architect’ and was delighted to hear about his Mercury Prize nomination however I was more than curious to see how his songs, beautifully crafted and recorded in his own bedroom would come across onstage with a full band and if they really could deliver.

 

It is therefore much to his credit and excellence that the songs were elevated even higher in my opinion despite the soullessness of the venue and lifelessness in the sound quality. In fact his acoustic instore PA earlier in the evening at Resident Records sounded infinitely better and was a real pleasure. Nevertheless from the very beginning and his opening song ‘Say’ Duncan and the band hit their stride and you were immediately swept along by the extra breath and dimension to his songs, the exquisite backing vocals and the depth of the rhythm section providing a lush and often upbeat atmosphere. Other tracks from the album such as 'Miracles', 'Anytime' and 'Architect' quickly followed maintaining the pace as well as the easy charm of his personality with just the right humorous and friendly interjections to the audience, drawing us in to fully appreciate his talent and admire the melodies and dynamics of his songs.

One special singular moment was of course 'I’ll Be Gone By Winter' (a potentially future classic) providing a pivotal moment in the evening which at the end allowed the audience to ecstatically express their appreciation for this quality songwriter and performer. All gigs in my opinion must have their magical moment and this was one of them and with the change of seasons already in the air, captivated a feeling which warmed all our hearts and souls. Then unexpectedly we were treated to an excellent new song 'Do I Hear' which received an equally strong response from the audience and may feature on his next album. It was followed by 'Silence And Air' and 'Garden', while the final song of the night was 'Here To There' (one of my personal favourites on the album).

 

People have hinted at a reminiscence of the Fleet Foxes and Alt-J in his work which is ‘nae bad thing’ in my book but testament to the brilliance of his own material. I have no doubt you are going to hear a lot more about Christopher Duncan in the future and his progress to become one of our biggest artists and who in time will be filling out much bigger venues as well as wowing next summer festival audiences and who as a song writer is just going to get better and better if that is possible.

Captain.

Photo by Gaston Torres