Michael Kiwanuka at Bristol's Colston Hall

Posted on: 2017-05-08

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On the occasion of his 30th birthday, Michael Kiwanuka woos an audience at Colston Hall with sonic stories collected during his several spins around the sun.


Michael Kiwanuka Bristol

In amongst all that is unstable in these uncertain times, one thing is absolutely clear: topping a BBC Sound of… list does not guarantee lasting success. Though the nod can provide a stepping-stone to greater things, gold discs and Glastonbury slots, just as often it can represent a creative ceiling, an indication of the shallow waters from which waves of hype can grow. For every Adele there is a Little Boots; for every Ellie Goulding, a Keane – and I will personally buy a Mars Bar for anyone who can tell me who 2005 winners The Bravery are.

 

The unlikely inheritor of this potentially-poisoned chalice in 2012 was Michael Kiwanuka, the understated acoustic blues singer who beat out shortlisted favourites Frank Ocean, A$AP Rocky, Lianne La Havas and Skrillex in something of a vintage year. As such, his chances of retaining prominence were slighted, particularly by those who wished to dismiss the poll as an increasingly arbitrary indicator of buzz.

 

What has followed in the half-decade since has defied both of the categories stated: he has shone steadily, neither burning out nor fading away, last year putting out a second album, Love and Hate, which built on the earnest warmth of his 2012 debut, Home Again, with retrospective nods to soul, jazz and psych.

Michael Kiwanuka Colston Hall

An altogether more grown-up record, the more elaborate furnishing of his stage, complete with eight-piece backing band, echoes its dominance of Kiwanuka’s setlist for his show at Colston Hall - which falls on the evening of his 30th birthday. The band don’t appear to have received their invitations though: party wear has been eschewed for heavy leathers and moody denim amongst the cohort flanking the singer.

 

They do, however, create a hell of a noise, building together dramatically in the grandiose overture of opening number ‘Cold Little Heart’, which feels like it has been written expressly to show off their individual talents. Keys swell and wane to be replaced by soaring guitar lines, frequently interspersed with introductions from the trio of singers.

 

It is Kiwanuka’s voice that really impresses though, cutting through it all at the five-minute mark as the music begins to more readily resemble a the format of a pop song. Though neither technically perfect nor given to intricate melisma, his vocal is absolutely emotive; its timbre raw and impassioned, its tone warmer than a brisk walk up Park Street.

 

 

A quartet of Love and Hate cuts follow in the form of ‘One More Night’, ‘Falling’, ‘I’ll Never Love’ and ‘Black Man In A White World’, the latter growing from a naked handclap to incorporate jazzy guitar breaks and bongo solos around the chanted reprise of its chorus. The song is an example of the record’s variety and the growing consciousness of its creator, more willing to delve into disparate yet formative genres. Another comes courtesy of the psych-tinged, flange-drenched reimagining of ‘Rule The World’, which sprawls over into an eight-minute epic.

 

Despite this evident maturity – made all the more evident by an audience-wide rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ to celebrate the 30th of the man onstage – there is still a place in his set for a couple of tracks plucked from his debut, Home Again, which evidence a simpler, less cynical vein of song-writing.

 

The first comes immediately after the mass many happy returns, as the backing band, in a moment of subtle theatricality, evaporate into the dry-ice, leaving Kiwanuka alone with a guitar on which to pluck the opening notes of ‘I’m Getting Ready’. The vocal melody is gorgeous, and sufficient to move skins to shiver even, as it is, relatively unadorned.

 

 

The other is ‘Home Again’ itself, which forms the first half of the encore once the musicians have left the stage at various points during the outro to ‘Father’s Child’, which closes the set proper. It is an instance of the understated sentimentality which Kiwanuka plies so easily, wooed out of his larynx by his gentle fretwork. The second half is comprised of the title track from Love and Hate and is, within the singer’s oeuvre, as different as it could be – with prominent backing vocals, effects-addled instrumentation and grandiose lyricism, all aided by participation from the whole band in complete cohesion.

 

The pair of songs are antipodal in chronology, tone and scale, but delivered with a common consummate quality. These two songs are Kiwanuka’s musical development in miniature, set at opposite ends yet delivered with apposite aplomb; a snapshot of a set which has been thunderous in both its light and shade. 



Article by:

Sam Mason-Jones

An ardent Geordie minus the accent, Sam seemingly strove to get as far away from the Toon as possible, as soon as university beckoned. Three undergraduate years at UoB were more than ample time for Bristol (as it inevitably does) to get under his skin, and so here he remains: reporting, as Assistant Editor, on the cultural happenings which so infatuated him with the city. Catch him at sam@365bristol.com.