Chats Palace sits comfortably in the middle of Homerton, a bit like a friendly aunty you visit every other month for a cup of tea and a natter.
Combining the atmosphere of a church hall, a working men’s club and a music venue, it is absolutely full of hipsters: beards, square-rimmed glasses and ironic cardigans as far as the eye can see. They are here to see Cloud Boat, a dubiously-titled band currently on the last leg of the tour for their upcoming EP release.
Minimalist contributions from guitar and synths do nothing to detract from the sense that this is potentially something of a Mogwai tribute band; the false wails of the frontman during “Bastion” fail to cover up the sloppy tempo.
Songs like “Wanderlust” only add to the sense that this band appears to have a troublingly grand delusion of greatness, perhaps fuelled by their hipster fans who are well known for actively seeking out bands that no one else will have heard of. The reference to “childhood friend” James Blake in their band profile on Facebook, although interesting, unfortunately comes across as a cheap attempt to pull in a crowd.
“Drean” shows promise (and is, unsurprisingly, their most popular song on Spotify), featuring a decent guitar hook and a beautifully controlled vocal contribution. Interestingly, it runs under three minutes long, while “Bastion” dragged out for an agonising five minutes. “Drean” also strips away the unnecessary overlays of electronica and as a result is far cleaner and much more honest than some of the other tracks on the Book of Hours LP.
Singer Tom Clarke has a decent voice, albeit with too many affectations. Cloud Boat will hopefully go on to find that their strengths (and they do have talent) may lie in a slightly different genre. New material, including the wonderful, highly assured vocal projection and solid production of “Carmine”, suggests that they are doing just that.
