Playing a few low-key dates following the launch of his stunning new album I DES, Cellardyke’s Kenny ‘King Creosote’ Anderson, seemed happy with his instore set at Assai Dundee.
He had “a stage, a chair, a microphone, some snacks and you happy Dundonians,” he told the 50 or 60 people squeezed into the store.
There was no room, though, for his band. Instead it was just Anderson, his acoustic guitar and his loop pedal onstage, just like the old days.
Aided by a couple of cheerily tipsy friends from Crail who hollered “we love you, Kenny!” and “the King is alive!” between songs, this felt like the kind of East Neuk pub gig where Anderson, a one-time Mercury Music Prize nominee who shares a record label with Arctic Monkeys, feels most at home.
The banter flowed freely. He told a tale about being in a pub in Liege where “everyone was six foot four”, and he was advised to stand on a window sill to get a better view – possibly a hint to the audience here.
His in-order performance of the record began with the mournful It’s Sin That’s Got Its Hold Upon Us, with gentle choral voices looping in the background.
“I’ve not managed to rip samples off the whole record yet,” admitted Anderson, but the out-of-tune, out-of-time rhythm he used on Blue Marbled Elm Trees gave the song a playful new edge.
Gig was ‘fresh, intimate spin’ on new material
Remembering problems he had with rot in his house a few years ago, he recounted living in the attic while it was worked on, where he “felt like a Numskull from the Beano”, upstairs in the head of a sick house.
Downstairs “with the mushrooms” he left a record by Andrew Wasylyk playing, and when it started skipping, a recording of the loop formed the basis of Dust, as played here.
The sparseness of the setting suited Walter De La Nightmare, Ides and Please Come Back, I Will Listen, although the bouncy, looping backing track to Susie Mullen sounded odd through a tinny tape recorder.
It was great to hear this fresh, intimate spin on Anderson’s new songs, although we can count ourselves lucky he didn’t follow through on the threat to hum the entire 36-minute instrumental bonus track.
King Creosote’s new album I DES is out now on Domino.
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