For more than 10 years, Ruban Nielson has been “good at being in trouble“. The New Zealand musician has a knack of sabotaging a sophisticated sense of pop with his free spirit and thirst for experimentation. The latter may have prevented him from being shot Tame Impala-style into the pop stratosphere after the success of ‘Multi-Love‘ (2015), his breakthrough record with the general public, but it did produce a lot of exciting music. Always balancing between freaky and catchy, but always with enough groove to keep everyone on their toes. Live, Nielson eagerly cherry-picks from the garage rock and psych jams of his older records and the funky exploits of ‘Multi-Love‘ successor ‘Sex & Music‘ and his double album ‘V‘, released last year. In the process, he makes plenty of room for trips to the weirder edges of his musical universe. Expect a storm of creativity and playing pleasure and – for those who open their third eye – a mind-bending psychedelic trip. |