“What up?” Amber Bain poses to the near-capacity crowd at
The Wardrobe in Leeds as she saunters onstage. Shadowed under blue and purple
spotlights, she cuts a polite, if reserved figure. Backed by a drummer and
bassist/keyboard player, she is The Japanese House, a curator of a curious
collection of bewitching ambient dream pop stacked with the kind of vocal harmonies
Jeff Lynne would applaud. Her brand of off-kilter indietronica is featherweight
in sound and execution, and matches the androgynous moniker she has taken,
low-pitched look, baggy look and all.
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| Amber Bain of The Japanese House, live at Manchester O2 Apollo in 2016. (Credit to Trust a Fox Photography.) |
Her gig in Yorkshire’s biggest city – a stop on a headline
tour to promote her third EP Swim Against
the Tide – may only be a brisk fifty-five minutes, but she crams all her
released material, and then some, into it. Opening with Clean, The Japanese House weave a hypnotic tapestry of
reverb-drenched vocals and staccato guitar licks over floating, airy synths
that runs through all twelve songs showcased. Bain is often shy and a touch
flustered, a demeanour influenced by historic stage-fright, and as such, she keeps
dialogue to a minimum. “Thanks very much,” she murmurs, whip-quick after the
first song. “I can tell this is going to be a fun show.”
In a way, The Japanese House are a twenty-first century
answer to a power-trio. As they drop woozy fretwork over club-like ambience on Teeth, there’s an instinctive primal
thrill that manifests itself in the recesses, yet remains reined in. Pools to Bathe In sees roaring, windswept
flourishes underscore the looping guitar figure draped languidly across the
track whilst they find a rare strut on the shoegaze-esque Good Side In, the tumble of tom-toms scattered freely across its body.
There’s a loosely coiled tension that permeates their sound; a friction that is
almost unnoticeable in the way that the material lulls with trance-like
refrains.
It’s a shame then that the atmosphere lacks at points.
Dream-pop is not the most invigorating of soundscapes and the constant ebb and
flow often creates spells where Bain can’t hold the crowd. Newer songs such as
the Caribbean-tinged Swim Against the
Tide and the aching Letter By the
Water are diminished by a disinterest fostered through gentleness. She does
capture them back at points – the Bondian piano chords that kick off Sugar Pill bring much needed drama – but
the lushly-stacked work on show proves a little too relaxed for some.
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| Amber Bain of The Japanese House performing live in Los Angeles in 2016. (Credit to Mallory Turner.) |
But Bain still has some aces as she finishes off; new single
Face Like Thunder, perhaps her most
direct stab at mainstream pop yet, is a gloriously pulsating slice of synthpop,
whilst closer Still packs an
emotional punch, built upon echoing synth drops that ripple like a vast ocean.
“We’ll be over by the merch stand after,” she says, with a mischievous smile,
indicating the aforementioned table. “Come say hi.” The Japanese House have
something great in their musical DNA and have honed it well so far – now
though, they have to shake it up a bit to keep their fans on their toes.
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