Benoit Pioulard at Whippersnapper Gallery in Toronto
23 April 2009
At home, sitting on my couch, reading a book, Benoit Pioulard’s music is ideal. Drifting, drony ambience with a nod to Nick Drake added in for good measure. Pioulard (real name Thomas Meluch) is very much at home on the Kranky label, and both his records “Precis” and the newly-released “Temper” are excellent home listening albums. However, his music did not translate very well in a live setting. He played for just over a half an hour and spent most of it sitting on the ground as if he was just jamming and knob-twiddling in his basement. That’s all fine and good, as most of the audience was sitting on the ground too, but I’ve come to like a little professionalism now and again. Perhaps his youth is a factor here, as he is just 24, but seeing equally young Peter Broderick put on an amazing show a few weeks earlier, Benoit Pioulard’s live show was very underwhelming.
Headliner’s Windy and Carl were much better, but I think the slowcore drone movement is one best heard in the horizontal position. G’night.
INAUDIBLE 