Thurs 9th Aug Tap House, St Agnes (co-headline with Natty)
Fri 10th Aug Sandsifter, Godrevy (co-headline with Natty)
Sat 11th Aug Backstage Bar at Unleashed Festival, Newquay (with Natty)
Imagine an album that matches the leftfield edge of Beck or Radiohead with the kind of sure-footed pop hooks often associated with Justin Timberlake; an album built around a voice that's as sweetly expressive as it is richly soulful. Then imagine that every single sound of it, including the bass and the drums, is performed by one man on his amazingly versatile guitar. That record is ‘Charmed & Strange’. And the man? Yoav.
Growing up amidst the cultural boycott of apartheid-era South Africa with an architect father and an opera singer mother who allowed only classical music and opera in the family home, Yoav only managed to access modern music by sneaking to a neighbour’s house. By the age of 12, Yoav was waiting until his parents had gone to bed before practicing on a battered guitar given to him by his brother.
As he hit his teenage years, Yoav continued to consume music with an insatiable hunger, always pushing at the boundaries his parents had set. Beginning with the relatively safe sounds of Simon & Garfunkel and the Beatles, he then moved onto the dark pop music of U2, Depeche Mode and The Cure and later through phases of devouring hip hop, grunge and electronic music.
In his teens Yoav began to focus on his own songwriting and by the time he finished high school at 18, he was regularly demo-ing his songs in local studios.
After a year at university and a stint in London, Yoav relocated to New York when a record executive offered him a development deal. However, after countless gigs in NYC’s clubland Yoav stumbled upon a new direction and began creating different beats and sounds with his guitar.
This new, beat-driven sound proved to be a hit back in Yoav’s hometown of South Africa but was ‘too unique’ for the US market. Returning to the UK, early recordings quickly attracted the attention of new label Field Recordings. A deal was signed and Yoav made ‘Charmed & Strange’ in Oxford and Montreal. Every note of it is played, teased, tapped and pounded out of his guitar.
The album opens with the hypnotic Adore Adore, followed by Club Thing, a seductive tale of clubland excess in which Yoav proves he only needs his trusty acoustic to compete with Timbaland's beat-making. From there, one darkly uplifting song trips into another. One By One is a sighing eulogy to friends lost too early to responsibility; the yearning first single Beautiful Lie muses on disintegrating relationships and hidden truths; the groove-laden Yeah, The End paints a vivid picture of impending apocalypse; and the album is rounded off by a gorgeous, slowed down cover of the Pixies’ Where Is My Mind? that could tear a heart at a hundred paces.
’Charmed & Strange’ is an album that sounds unlike anything else around, edgy and original, but with the tunes to light up daytime radio.
Beautiful Lie is the first single from the album and will be released on October 22nd 2007.
