In 2022, James Murphy (LCD Soundsystem) heard the track Friends playing in a New York coffee shop, and was captivated. The band behind the track, Stroud-based duo Mermaid Chunky, found themselves supporting LCD Soundsystem at Brixton Academy later that year. This September, following their signing to Murphy’s DFA records, the band release their second album slif slaf slof. They launched it in style to a sold-out crowd at London’s iconic Moth Club.
A band big on visuals, the set begins with the duo Moina Moin and Freya Tate veiled under a conjoined dress. After a hushed moment, their heads slowly poke out, and they are (or the new album is) born. Once the dress is shed, they launch into Céilí, the debut single of the album. The chirpy introduction of looped recorders begin to build, but before the next layers can be added, Tate presses a pedal and the sound stops abruptly. It is unclear whether this was a mistake or a planned interruption, either way the pair seem amused, Tate quipping, ‘Shall we start that one again?’.
Start again they do, and it is a lovely release once the frantic recorders are finally smoothed out by humming vocals and synths. The audience loosen up and begins to dance, and the track’s title, the Gaelic word for party, feels fulfilled.
The band’s cheeky, ad hoc spirit pervades the rest of the set. The pair have an assembly of colourful ‘instruments’ on the table behind them which they use to build the tracks. Tate makes loops from scraping brushes and chattering teeth, while Moin draws from an assortment of mouth-instruments evoking croaking frogs, quacking ducks and other undetermined creatures. These haphazard sounds and rhythms eventually unite to create something strangely danceable, and the room finds itself swaying to the squelchy beats of Frogsporn and the waltzing, fairground rhythm of Tiny Gymnast.
As the set presses on the audience are drawn deeper into the unpredictable slif slaf slof universe. Frogsporn pulls the room into an uneasy, swampy landscape with its growling bassline. Moin slips between identities of a time-travelling gymnast, a writer from the Deep South and an uninformed ‘nature girl’. Meanwhile strange characters, with giant hats, blue faces, and houses for heads, gradually slip into the dancing crowd. The audience feel their pre-gig lives fade away as they enter this surreal new world.
There are moments the spell is broken. Some tracks never reach their danceable fruition, such as the acapella medieval and sad nun, heavy on the organs and woeful saxophone. The patient stillness that these tracks implore is met with a hint of restlessness from an audience who have been primed for dancing.
Perhaps predicting that attention would waver, after these rhythm-light tracks are played, the duo switch the mood once again. This time there is warning, Tate saying matter of factly, ‘just a heads up the vibe is gonna dramatically change’. It is time for chaperone, the second single from the album. After a leisurely build-up, the track descends into a pummelling electro-bassline and a neat, percussive chorus full of sensual, if not confusing, commands: ‘never kiss me but// always kiss me’. It is another great point of release, the room becomes a frenzied mesh of fans and costumed characters.
Before the set ends, Moin and Tate have one more surprise up their (billowing) sleeves. At the peak of the chaperone frenzy, Tate announces that as it’s London fashion week, it is time for a fashion show. By some miracle, the frenetic crowd is parted down the middle and a snake of fairy lights are trailed down to mark out the runway. The slif slaf slof characters, heavy with mops, frills, and hats, gather on stage before prancing down the middle.
The whole crowd is thrilled by this pop-up fashion show, cheering and shining phone torches to illuminate the runway. They might be won over by the return of the céilí spirit, or by the spectacle of these surreal home-made costumes, either way, their initiation into the strange, shape-shifting world of slif slaf slof is complete.
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