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Cloudi Lewis (EP Launch)

Venue: Soul Cellar
Town: Southampton
Date: 26th March 2013
Website: https://www.facebook.com/CloudiLewisMusic

Tonight was a night for upcoming local music and upcoming cookery alike. The soothing presence of baked cakes grooved nicely with the rich music as the student audience showed a huge appetite for both.

I graced the Soul Cellar just in time to hear the solo acoustic set from Naomi Rush, a bright young Solent uni music student who has been forging her own niche in cross-genre cover song i.e. covering Metallica and Radiohead songs in the style of acoustic folk falsetto voice, it's endearing, its catchy and more importantly it's unique. Naomi Beautiful songbird high pitched voice kept the audiences concentration throughout multiple verses of Karma Police without one wrong note, NOT an easy feat. Naomi treated the crowd to one of her own self penned songs which I had to say was catchier and of more substance than all of her covers. I would expect bright things from this accomplished guitarist in the future.

Next up were quite a surprise, the energetic and eccentric 'Signals' stormed the stage noticeable outside of the pop-folk dynamic that Cloudi Lewis fans were accustomed to. A late teens /early 20s quartet were exceptional in performance with front singer/keys player being an absolute jolly delight as she remained constantly animated, dancing persistently throughout the set. Signals exploded on cue and kept rising and were a breath of fresh air showing hints of local legends Arp Attack. They really gave it their all and slightly shifted the intimate acoustic vibe of the evening to a quirky, guitar tinged electro pop swagger about them. Signals certainly left an impression before politely returning the stage to Cloudi Lewis' ep launch.

I was curious how the Cloudi Lewis band would bring back the essence of the night as previous gigs were in my experience a mellow acoustic affair but tonight the emphasis in Cloudi Lewis band was the 'band'. Now a six piece they had a full-on rock almost country sound and it bounced cheerfully around the venue filling out eardrums.

Cloudi mainly sang the 5 tracks on her ep but they were different works since recording her ep the previous weeks she has clearly laced her song writing with a tastefully padded out full band sound that was never more evident than when the opening of the upgrade of 'Rambling' burst into the stage. The Cloudi Lewis band were tonight smuggling the trademark rock credentials of 'Skymarshal' in her midst. Skymarshal are not stranger to a big rock band sound or stage presence in general and tonight they took the stage as members of the Cloudi Lewis band like method actors, completely hiding trace of their known associated genre and dutifully filling out the role of pop almost country musicians. 'Like this' gave a bit of the spotlight back to Cloudi with her soothing trademark warble getting airplay in between bursts from the backing band, all rounded off nicely and pleasantly though in the overall picture.

A personal highlight for me was hearing the loud electric band version of 'ego' in full fury .The unique addition of reverb smothered backing vocals in this and 'Like this' really bring across the contrast in Cloudi's flowery summer meadow voice against the melancholy that sometimes lingers suggestively in her lyrics. Tonight the band had 'graduated' their early acoustic year with a full furnished display of musical prowess.

Lewis MacLean
Pics:Chris Meaney