Words by Ed King
On Monday 12th June, Kyla La Grange comes to Mama Roux’s in Digbeth, with support from FOURS. Doors open at 7pm with tickets priced at £8 (advance) – as presented by Birmingham Promoters. For direct gig info and online ticket sales, click here.
Kicking off a six date UK tour in Birmingham, Kyla La Grange will leave the arches of our industrial hangover to play King Tut’s in Glasgow (Jun 13th) and The Hope and Ruin in Brighton (Jun 17th). Expect some major city pit stops en route – click here for details.
Launching into music with her debut album, Ashes, in 2012, Kyla La Grange is kind of hard to pinpoint – great for the cultural conscious of the world, difficult for a tired hack with a deadline. But I guess that’s the point; pejorative office metaphors be damned, you’ve got Google and ears now get to work you lazy bag of nerves and tissue.
But I’ll give is a stab. Apologies in advance… Moving from the more indie rock six strings dance backbone of her debut (I did start this with an apology) Kyla La Grange has seemingly embraced a more electronica approach with her more recent work.
Ashes, a pretty stellar fourteen track introduction, jumped from the determined rock of ‘Walk Through Walls’ into the haunting ballad of ‘To Be Torn’, only to end up basking content on the shores of ‘The River’ – an addictive track I bet a pre-Mercury Awards Marling wishes she’d have written.
Cut Your Teeth, Kyla La Grange’s sophomore album, came out in 2014 produced by Jakwob. Ten tracks that traverse corners of electronica from brooding tech to Calypso, it’s a well spent three quarters of an hour. I’ll just cite some songs and save you the adjectives: ‘Cannibals’, ‘The Knife’, ‘Big Eyes’ and start as the God of programming intended with the title track.
So now it’s 2017, where the hell has she been I hear you ask? You didn’t, it’s a segue, and I honestly don’t know. But probably touring the planet with Faithless. There have been a few ‘distinguished’ singles drip fed to keep us interested though: some more pop that electronica, some more vanilla than the darker flavours of Cut Your Teeth. But again, Google your way (or grab a hipster and shake them until answers fall out of their tiny pockets).
Plus if you’ve got a few more minutes to spare then check out Kyla La Grange’s Twitter feed for an approach to politics and the public domain debate that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. And breathe… perhaps we’ll be OK after all. Not often I’m directed to The Morning Star’s website whilst researching an artist.
Anyway… if music be the blah blah here’s a Snickers bar. Get to Mama Roux’s on Monday for the rest.
‘Skin’ – Kyla La Grange
Kyla La Grange performs at Mama Roux’s on Monday 12th June, with support from FOURS – as presented by Birmingham Promoters. For direct gig info and online ticket sales, click here.
For more on Kyla La Grange, visit www.kylalagrange.com
For more on FOURS, visit www.soundcloud.com/itsfours
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For more from Mama Roux’s, including full event listing and online ticket sales, visit www.therainbowvenues.co.uk/venues/mama-rouxs
For more from Birmingham Promoters, visit www.birminghampromoters.com
