Opus Kink - Vanity Fairy
Less than three months ago, Opus Kink and Vanity Fairy performed downstairs in the main room supporting Warmduscher. Tonight, they are playing together upstairs in the rather smaller - but to my mind better - Studio.
I’ve been a fan of VANITY FAIRY’s work for a while now. I first saw her perform – a set of guitar rock with nods to PJ Harvey and Nick Cave as Daisy Victoria – a decadeish ago. Things change and Vanity Fairy is a whole different and more original proposition: Top quality art-pop-electro-disco-new wave-blaxploitation topped off with vocals that, at the top of the range, give Kate Bush, Barry Gibb and Jimmy Somerville a run for their money. The presentation hints at Bush and Bowie, in their “mentored by mine artist extraordinaire Lindsay Kemp” phases, along with early Marc Almond and, more contemporaneously, Fever Ray. The look however is Victorian music hall mystic colliding with 1920s flapper chic. Being a purist, I’d rather see a full band rather than one person singing over pre-recorded sounds generated from a laptop, a la Billy Nomates, but Vanity Fairy pulls it off and is a thoroughly entertaining, intriguing live act. Ending the set on the dance floor doing a routine straight outta Strictly with Opus Kink’s singer was a spontaneous moment of genius.
OPUS KINK are another thoroughly entertaining live act, albeit one that is a whole lot different to Vanity Fairy. Opus Kink are a 6 piece of guitar/vox, keys, bass, drums, sax and trumpet. God knows how they can afford to go on the road in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis but thank the deity of your choice that they do. Opus Kink mix filthy funk, 2Tone, jazz, mariachi and post-punk to create a thoroughly groovetastic monster of a sound.
Imagine Birthday Party era Nick Cave fronting a collision between Beefheart and Parliament or a Mexican Fat White Family jamming Specials songs or James Chance joining Gogol Bordello and covering Dr. John. Well, Opus Kink sound both absolutely nothing like and everything like those twisted products of my fevered imagination. And, with driving bass, thrashing guitar, psychedelic yet funky keys, pounding drums and those horns, they are even better than that might sound. It is not a sellout here – there are shows at NAC and Epic that likely appeal to a similar demographic – but the audience response is enthusiastic to say the least. At times, there’s more dancing going on than I have seen here since Molotov Jukebox way back when, including a Cossack/breakdance hybrid the like of which I have never seen before.
Finally a huge THANK YOU to the soundman for playing De Staat’s marvellous Pikachu between Vanity Fairy and Opus Kink.
