Cryptacize at The Windmill

Cryptacize at The Windmill

27 May, 2009
by: Mcdean

Managing to be understated, rich, lo-fi, noisy, tender, syncopated, smooth, mysterious and warm all at the same time, Cryptacize are a rare and special thing. Combining Chris Cohen's (Deerhoof, The Curtains) fuzzy, atonal and raw guitar adventures with Nedelle Torrisi's crystal clear '60s girl group vocal and overwhelming charisma, this band possess an irresistible magical ambience. 'I'm just glad not too many people came!' Nedelle nervously confides before they take the stage. By the time they do, the room is filling up, and everyone is quickly in the throes of this enchanting performance.

I'd already had a quick taste of Cryptacize at their Pure Groove in-store show around midday, but singer Nedelle told me: 'my vocal was too quiet, and we only played five songs! Come and see us at the Windmill tonight!' I was more than impressed by the show to be honest, but happy to see the band a second time. I'm glad I did, as this phantasmagorical music suits a night-time set far better, and the intimate low-ceilinged setting of The Windmill is far more apt.

The sound takes your psyche echoing through vintage reverb and cinematic snippets of melody like the silhouette-figures on the opening titles of an old Bond movie. No, something older: a magic lantern, but with all that 1960s hope. You're captivated and led away with subtle pathos, but definite adventure. Fitting, given the band's new album, 'Mythomania', is fuelled by the idea of endless creative potential and the urge to fabricate intricate and beautiful stories. 'Every time we turn around/The moon is laughing at us,' Nedelle sings.

Led through dream sequences, moments of belief, events real and imagined, sane and insane; the set is like a progression of moments in a thousand different stories all acted out with their own mutable soundtrack; shifting, howling, distorted and tender. It's difficult to put into words the sheer sweetness of Nedelle's vocal progressions, and the quality of her voice, which conjures up a sort of alternate, beautiful reality, the likes of which the American Dream was founded on from the '40s to the '60s. Many of the songs somehow manage to sound like showtunes and private lyrical interludes simultaneously, while the guitar sounds and changes leave you feeling that nothing is certain, nothing can ever be, and that nothing really needs to be.

This really appeals to something deeper, at the same time as immediately appealing to anyone's aesthetic sense. A glance around the crowd shows enchanted faces, not wanting it to stop. 'I've got a new spell,' Nedelle sings, the mouthpiece of the magic and mystery at the heart of it all, and as each song comes to rest, the spell broken, the crowd cries out for the next one to begin. After the last song, the cry for more is like a mob mandate. Give this band a listen, you'll not regret it, and if you can catch them live, do it. I left the show feeling enriched, inspired, and more than a little in love with the world again.

Cryptacize are currently touring their latest album, 'Mythomania,' and will be performing at The Union Chapel on 28th May.

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Mcdean