Review: Aquilo

On the short wander from my house to the Bully, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from Aquilo. A cursory perusal of their soundcloud had led me to anticipate a melancholic evening.

I arrived on time, or at least when I was meant to, to find twenty or so Oxford souls desperate for their latest dose of sorrow. Nervously sipping on their £4.50 pints of Heineken, awaiting, no doubt with baited breath, the next biggest ambient-electro-pop duo around.

And wait they did. Aquilo in some stab at suspense-building showmanship left the ambient-electro-pop-thirsty masses salivating for an hour, with only the murmurings of the sound check to sate them.

When the mysterious duo finally appeared, by this point more hotly anticipated than Daft Punk at Glastonbury, none of the quaking crowd dared stand closer than ten feet from the two darkly-clad (and one mustachioed) musicians on stage.

They have been likened to James Blake and the echoing harmonies of their opening song is reminiscent of London Grammar’s ‘Hey Now’. The pair has listed the latter as one of their main influences, and you can see why, what with eunuch-like, soaring falsettos cascading down on every chorus. Though I can’t help but feel that it all sounded a little familiar. As The Smiths lyric goes, “Stop me if you think that you’ve heard this one before”, I was ready with some wire cutters to cut the mic leads. Because I had heard this one before. Yeah they might be a little more ‘urban’ looking, but when it comes down to it, how different really is Aquilo to the sort of saccharine bullshit being put out by Sam Smith and his label?

Not to say the gig wasn’t executed well. Aquilo’s wailings might’ve had some sort of siren-like allure if I wasn’t so in need of a piss. The show was slick, and the quality of production undoubtedly impressive. The show ended well, with a somewhat surprising cover of Usher standing out. The set was atmospheric and looking around the crowd you could see a peaceful bliss descend, as if they had been lulled into a Valium haze. If not completely hypnotized, by the time of their beautiful set ender ‘You there’, I was certainly absorbed by that looping chorus. And by that point, my bladder now empty, I caught eyes with a fellow gig-goer, both our ears tenderly massaged, with whom I exchanged a look of contentment; they were alright, actually.