Drinks – Hermits On Holiday
Transatlantic mind-meld between Cate Le Bon and White Fence’s Tim Presley works wonders.
LISTENING TO THIS collaboration between off-beam Welsh singer-songwriter Cate Le Bon and White Fence mastermind Tim Presley, it can seem like the pair could just as easily have channelled their energies into painting murals of newsreaders’ faces, or constructing backyard installations out of Coke bottles and wax.
Dry, scratchy and clankingly awkward at times (especially the untethered guitar babble of Tim, Do I Like That Dog), Hermits On Holiday replicates the feel of proper outsider art, its creators chewing up words and music like psychedelic wasps, building a nest around themselves to protect a curious internal logic.
The tick-tocking title track defines this warped insularity: “Quarter to five/feeding time… Six past the eight/copulate,” sings Le Bon guilelessly, while mangled waltz Spilt The Beans descends into yellow-wallpapered paranoia.
The Cardiff-LA pairing might be creatively equal, but the sound they make is beautifully out of balance.
Listen to the title track.