Shoreditch’s Dream Bags Jaguar Shoes is a hip and inviting bar, with the gig venue down the steps into the underground. On August 13th the basement bar featured the artists Scattered Ashes, Sasha Assad and Albert Gold – unfortunately I wasn’t present for Dublin-based Scattered Ashes’ opening set, but I urge you to listen to their new debut EP, ‘All That Is Solid Melts Into Air‘.
R&B and soul artist Albert Gold was joined on stage by electric guitar and keys, with a set combining the live and the pre-recorded electronic.
In his classy black jacket, Gold sang with the mic in his hand throughout, freeing him completely to move along with the music. His relaxed but strong stage presence was evident from the beginning, particularly coming to light from his confident eye contact with the audience and his anecdotes between songs. There was a great chemistry between the performers, with the keys guy bobbing to the music and the guitarist swaying – their feeling of the groove was contagious for the audience.
Gold’s vocal abilities were extremely impressive and varied, with a strong sense of control yet complete ease throughout his set. He exercised a strong, smooth mid-range belt, contrasted with a beautiful falsetto adorned with a perfectly controlled vibrato – this falsetto went amazingly high, all the way up to a top G!
There was an effective sense of contrast throughout his set, both in his singing and in the general groove of each song, alongside some pretty gorgeous chord choices. The contrast in the instrumentation, in terms of the mixture between the live and the pre-recorded, was intriguing, with a strong electronic drum sound and some thick multi-layered backing vocals to accompany Gold’s melody. I would also like to draw attention to the keys guy’s occasional piano glissandos, which were particularly cool.
Gold’s powerful stage presence was topped off by his leading of the audience participation in ‘Want Me’, with the instrumentalists demonstrating the call and response while he sang it, showing their impressive musicianship. I loved how Gold ended the set, announcing his departure while the band continued playing the end of the final song – the unreleased ‘Something I Need to Know’. Overall Gold’s set had a brilliant energy and feel, working through the occasional mix issues, and showcasing his charisma and effortless stage presence.
Indie-rock artist Sasha Assad was joined by bass and the drummer on a bright pink drum kit. The musicians all had a relaxed, casual look, with Assad sporting an excellent mullet.
The band started their first song, ‘Cherry Cola’, straight away, wasting no time and instantly creating an exciting atmosphere. The hook of this song is particularly catchy, demonstrating Assad’s skillful songwriting abilities. Assad had a very cool stage presence which came out between the songs, where she communicated with the band mates and got straight down to business each time. It was particularly fun to watch the communication between Assad and the band, especially between her and the bassist in ‘Second Nature’, as they were both clearly really enjoying themselves.
The contrast within each individual song was what really stuck out for me. In the third song – ‘Amelia’ – Assad began by exercising a half-talking, half-singing style, and doing a call and response between her vocals and all the instruments. The song then morphed into a call and response between the drums and the vocals, with Assad shouting out that a drum solo was approaching, and turning to play her guitar towards the drums. The same then happened for the bass solo too, which had a really epic groove. The chemistry and enjoyment between the three musicians was evident, and the three-person setup was very effective, with the bassist and the drummer having their own moments at different times.
‘Frankenstein’ showed the band’s heavier side, with crash cymbals, feedback and a slightly mental guitar part. Having Assad on the guitar instead of a seperate guitarist made the set very visually striking too, and really emphasised her talent as a performer. ‘Don’t Ask Me to Dance’ showed another of the band’s specialties – stabs. The sudden stops and starts in this song kept the audience on their toes and really showed the cohesion of the band.
I would like to draw attention specifically to the melody and harmony of the final song, ‘Imagine Mary’. I thought the guitar riff was really quite something, and that the song overall had some really lush chords, mainly from the modal ideas dotted throughout. This one also included their famous stabs, showcasing all of their best abilities all in one song. Assad’s build up with the lyrics ‘I think she might be the one’ was incredibly striking and brought a strong excitement to the end of the set – so much so that the audience demanded an encore. This ended the set with a very effective slowing down, providing a substantial and memorable conclusion to a brilliant, energetic and contrasted performance.
Gold and Assad are incredibly exciting new artists which I couldn’t recommend enough, and I hope to catch Scattered Ashes another time. My only criticism is completely unrelated to the artists – it’s simply that the gig room could do with some air con.
