Thoughts on music: Not Least @ Latitude - Part 5

Monday, July 26, 2010

Not Least @ Latitude - Part 5 - The Good Natured

I'm liking this: for the first time I feel I am actually making the most of what I heard and saw at Latitude. I credit this to two things in particular:

EOTR 2009, which made me realise what is possible.
My trusty little Fujifilm F20. We have been through ups and downs together and it still does things it was never designed to do and sees things that I don't. Look at the picture of Clare Maguire and you see the keyboard player sitting it out. I never noticed him until I came to crop the photo for use here!

While it might seem that I spent the whole of my time at Latitude 2010 by the Lake Stage that is not actually true. It, and The Sunset Stage, are by far the easiest two at which to take pictures with limited equipment and even more restrictive talent. This artist was as far as I can remember, and I'm quite good at that, totally new to me. To prove what I said about a week ago I'm going to borrow something from NME as regards their slightly wayward thoughts on 'The Good Natured'.

“Until yesterday I thought all 18 year olds in Newbury did was nick sweets from Spar and set fire to bins, but being introduced to Sarah McIntosh a.k.a. The Good Natured has proved otherwise.”

To be fair I personally do not have such negative preconceptions of her home town. What I can imagine they wished to imply is that it is not seen as a hot bed of new music, which is true in so far as it goes. I don't think that it is fair to judge artists on the place they happen to have grown up in, even if in some notable cases that is a huge influence.

Here are two examples: Nirvana came from Seattle, which was rather unexpected. Muse come from Teignmouth - period!

The Good Natured does not sound remotely like either of the above. In fact, and this is a wholly appreciative comment, she sounds like I'm not quite sure who. To an extent it is electro-pop inspired but at the same time it is also slightly unsettling in an indefinable gothic-noir way. More importantly and as a short live set is not the time or place for worrying about lyrics, except to say that I noticed no obvious clangers, she has both the voice and presence to carry it off.

The single 'Your Body Is A Machine' is available now - including 7" vinyl, of course - and is a good showcase. I understand that she currently has no label deal but suspect that this situation may not persist. Definitely one to watch.