Indiana at Oslo

Olso in Hackney is meant to be the new trendy spot in east London, but unfortunately it is just a lounge bar full of pretentious video makers, designers, bloggers and “artists”. If there was something nice about east London, it was the general mood of relaxation, which is now apparently dead and gone to Peckham. But thank God, we have the music, always something that can save even the worst club in the world. Yesterday in front of a warm and substantial bunch of people, Indiana – a brand new, up-and-coming songwriter and singer from Nottingham – performed her soft, chill out music.

As an electric blue neon sign resides on an empty stage showing “INDIANA”, a mellow synth grows slowly by slowly with an enveloping smoke from the roof. The band enter the stage with a touch of the diva, which is always good in the music business. It is immediately clear that this girl has an amazing voice: halfway between the power of Florence Welch (of Florence & the Machine), the introspection of Jessie Ware and the ductility of the great Roisin Murphy. Musically speaking, the sound of her songs is related to bands like The XX, Grimes and The Weeknd, and onstage Indiana plays on with a drummer, a guitarist and a synth/laptop/bass player.

The performance starts gently with Never Born, followed up by the single Smoking Gun, where Indian bares her teeth, growing more and more confident on the stage. The following Animal moves the band into trip-hop territory, and New Heart in a more pop contest. Only at the end, the rhythm gets more beats  – the very good Solo Dancing, absolutely à la Moloko. The set ends up with Mess Around, the latest single from the band. In general, Indiana onstage is still too shy and it takes her few songs to improve her self-confidence and her voice, which was better in the second half of the show. But this is something that only practice can give you, hence sooner or later she will find her aplomb.

Indiana is evidently talented, and her recent performance at BBC Radio 1 is the proof that the media are behind her, waiting for her debut album to come out, which hopefully will confirm all of our insights about her.

Lorenzo Cibrario

For further information and future events visit Indiana’s website here.