Tune Yards - Bird Brains

It's not often that a woman yodelling is likely to be a good thing, but this just goes to show there is clearly a time and a place for everything. Beautifully filmed live performance below via CB (again); check out Zach Condon, no less, in the tiny audience.

tUne-YaRds // FIYA from Ray Concepcion on Vimeo.

Over a year since Fiya was first doing the webby rounds, the physical album Bird Brains is now available, and what a pleasure it is. Simple, layered, scratchy home-recorded lo-fi, with African flavours that are informed by Merrill having spent several months living there - more than can be said for parasitic Vampire Weekend as far as I know.

The lively acoustic jangle that is the most prominent characteristic of the songs is underpinned by a bass thump that ensures that the tunes have enough presence and heft, and which helps generate the abundant bouncy and very danceable off-beat rhythms, several of which seem quite remix-friendly. And although that kind of self-conscious tweaking would be the polar opposite of the untamed spirit the album captures, it might make for some interesting sounds.

Talking of which - apparently Micachu and The Shapes got on famously with Merrill in the States recently, unsurprising really as from a musical perspective there is a clear shared sensibility; so who knows, maybe something collaborative might come from that. But that's just wishful thinking on my part, so don't watch this space.