If Australia has the psych-pop, New Zealand has the folk, via Wales. We’ll come back to that. Aldous Harding has been steadily climbing into the minds of listeners since her eponymous 2014 debut Aldous Harding. Her latest album Designer will definitely be in the critic’s end of the year lists.There’s something so otherworldly about Harding’s performances, some well or barrel is being tapped, for sure. Tie-dye, raucous, garage-psych this is not. More a mystic walk through the misty Welsh valleys. She’s in much the same musical vein as Cate le Bon and her partner/collaborator H. Hawkline. Indie has transmuted back to folk, and it is a glorious form that has been taken.
Her video for the Barrel is spellbinding, you’ll watch it again and again for those dance moves. That hat, holy me.
This is probably the gig I personally most want to go to this year, and her date at the Roundhouse will probably sell out soon. On stage, she’ll be joined by Hawkline, and some other dudes with instruments. It’s like the Flight of the Conchords younger siblings were sick of the bloody JOKES their brothers were making; they wanted to show them how real shit gets done (I still love you, Bret and Jermaine). Child psychology over – yes Harding is a bit like Black Box Recorder – get some tickets.
