{"id":890,"date":"2015-12-11T18:37:45","date_gmt":"2015-12-11T18:37:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shindig-magazine.com\/?p=890"},"modified":"2015-12-12T12:00:17","modified_gmt":"2015-12-12T12:00:17","slug":"gold-celeste-seabright-arms-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/?p=890","title":{"rendered":"Gold Celeste, Sebright Arms, London"},"content":{"rendered":"

Norwegian psychsters London debut<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Gold Celeste<\/strong>
\nSebright Arms, London, \u00a0December 7th 2015<\/p>\n

\"gold_celeste_1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

With perhaps more melody and harmonies than an East London boozer deserves on a Monday night, Oslo’s Gold Celeste lay waste to Hackney\u2019s leaden December gloom with their particular brand of \u201cGolden Psych Pop\u201d. Their live London debut is part of a brief two-date (self-financed) jaunt to promote new LP\u00a0The Glow\u00a0<\/em>(released on Riot Factory last September). Gold Celeste\u2019s sound centres around the dual vocals of Simen Hallset and Eirik Fidjeland which are carried along by a slipstream of McCartney-esque bass shapes, West Coast guitar motifs, baby keyboard electronics, and the solid-but-loose drum dynamics of Petter Andersen. Highlights from the set include ‘Is this\u00a0What You Should Not Do’ with its call\/response dual-guitar chord theme sounding like a manic church bell being rung within an inch of its life. ‘Open Your Eyes’\u00a0shows flashes of The Flaming Lips, Caravan, and even Mad River\u2019s dissonant chord structures which bubble up quickly before being washed over by the band\u2019s trademark euphoric urgency.\u00a0 New single ‘The Wonder Of Love’ is drenched in sugar-coated reverb and sounds like The Turtles dropping in for a jam with Tame Impala, while its wistful coda is permeated by the spirit of\u00a0Saucerful<\/em>-era Rick Wright. The quality of the song writing is refreshingly strong with the emotional compass pointing to sounds which soundtrack life\u2019s highs (‘Time Of Your Life’) as well as tunes for those long, dark nights of the soul (‘You And I’).\u00a0 Set closer ‘Like A Poem’ is transformed into something less ethereal live, and is extended to a brief jam with Simen remarking on the number of CCTV cameras on London\u2019s streets before riffing on the main vocal melody of Neil Young\u2019s ‘Don\u2019t Let It Bring\u00a0<\/em>You Down’.<\/p>\n

An interesting mental leap for sure.\u00a0 If these gigs serve as a calling card for a future visit, then Gold Celeste are handing out the aural equivalent of those of the luxurious, thermographically embossed variety.\u00a0 Hopefully 2016 will see them return to pick up where they left off. Be sure to catch them when they do.<\/p>\n

Ian O’Sullivan<\/strong><\/p>\n