Celebrating the chart success of new album Hallucinating Love, Chris Davids and Liam Ivory posted a question on social media last week: “Who ever thought melancholy elevator music would make it in the Top 10?”
This tongue-in-cheek description gets at certain truths about the Maribou State sound. It can glide past without making much impact, but leaves behind a feeling of pleasant sadness, a vapour trail of blue.
Live, however, they are far punchier and dancefloor-focused. Not for nothing is the rhythm section – Jonny Cade on drums, Jonjo Williams on bass and percussion – positioned at the front of the stage. Davids and Ivory keep well back, the former mostly on guitar, the latter behind a bank of synths, drum pads and sample triggers.
They open with Nervous Tics, perhaps the funkiest song ever written about emotional detachment. In its recorded version it is sung by its co-writer Holly Walker, whose aloof tones are one of the band’s sonic signatures, but live vocals on this tour come from Talulah Ruby, who has a huge soul voice. Two songs, Steal and Midas, which she performs at what feels like close to her full power are met with answering roars from the crowd. Whenever she is off-stage, though – which is half the set – there is a drop in intensity and focus, and the mix of sampled and live singing can feel awkward. For All I Need, Ruby duets with the absent Andreya Triana, whose gospel-inflected hook is a highlight of the new album – but lacking that human dynamic, it falls a bit flat.
A shame, because that song – and the rest of Hallucinating Love – has a powerful emotional register. Indeed, it feels like the committed performances of the musicians, and the strong audience reaction to them, are informed by the compelling backstory to this music. Maribou State have not toured for years in part due to Davids suffering and then recovering from a debilitating brain condition. The situation, while obviously difficult, has been a creative stimulus in that it gave them a theme and a mood: hope in dark times. That is felt most keenly in Blackoak, with its lyrics of healing and compassion, which brings the evening to a close on a beautiful redemptive note.
• Maribou State play O2 Academy, Bristol, 11 February; Manchester Academy, 12 February; Alexandra Palace, London, 14-16 February
