Woah. Despite looking like the unlucky in love guy from a tween movie (and I can’t remember the last time the visual and aural components of someone were so totally out of whack), King Krule is a man, you guys. His deep voice, all rounded out with its wide vowels in that Dulwich accent, is like fucking seraphim. Like his countryman Mike Skinner, he seems very confident doing his small town thing and telling his tales, but unlike Skinner he allows us to see far into the cockles of that heart of his.
Opening with Has This Hit, and then Ceiling, KK’s band clearly love the guy’s music. The jazz drummer was like some sort of skinhead baby in a floral, short sleeved shirt, staring intently at the bassist with his maw hanging open while they created a rhythm section to end all darkwave hiphop/jazz fusion rhythm sections. Meanwhile, KK isn’t afraid of the flaws and cracks in his voice, and how he knows they’re beautiful at 19 is a straight up mystery.
A Lizard State was executed perfectly – very sophisticated but with the distinct feeling of coming from the ballsack, while not denying the youth of our hero. The soul which came out of this kid who hated sports days was amazing. When the tempo picked up his forelock fizzed with each guitar strum, killing it with a technicality steeped in the burbs.
There was very little banter but when the guy said a couple of words here and there everyone was eating them up. Easy Easy received the crowd adulation you’d expect, and by the time we got to Neptune Estate at the end of the set I guess I realised KK pairs the sacred and the profane, in some weird way, and it’s really working. Bloody brilliant.
BY ZOE RADAS
Photos by Ben Clements
Loved: He didn’t hurry a thing.
Hated: Um.
Drank: Bottles o’ beer.
