BLACK ATLANTIC

On the second day of South By Southwest, you find yourself torn between seeking out new sounds or reassuring favorites, long shot contenders or blue chip heavies.  It’s time to select your inner play list.  You also have to ask: when are you going to make time for the requisite bar-b-que?  For the latter, get in line at Iron Works.  First brisket and then independent music from Holland—that’s the appealing dissonance of the festival.  

The Dutch band in question is The Black Atlantic, a five-piece outfit specializing in gentle acoustic melodies.  Their introspective equation can be unforgiving here, and the band was given no favors with their venue above a raucous bar that threatened to overwhelm their precise sound.  But they soldiered on (that famous Dutch resolve) and played songs, like the starkly beautiful ‘Heirloom,’ from their debut record—whose evocative harmonies recall Bon Iver.  We look forward to their forthcoming record, Reverence For Fallen Trees, where their wistfulness can be appreciated on its own terms.

JJ

The Swedish duo jj is currently on tour opening for The xx.  Beyond their affinity for the lowercase ethic, both bands share a stark minimal approach to well-crafted pop songs.  They maintain a certain mystery—they are may be the only young band here with no MySpace presence.  At the Mohawk Patio, there was little sign of a duo, merely Elin Kastlander, a youthful cherubic singer who sat on a stool chewed gum and drank a beer.  She sang over a recorded track as if she was playing karaoke of her own album.  She said not a word, not a single one, to the audience—it was as if we were observing somebody singing alone in her room.  She started her set early, not out of any eagerness, one suspected, only so she could finish all the sooner.