看來yndi halda超愛台灣的

果真如我上一篇所言，這是他們人生有史以來最誇張的輝煌啊(笑)
你們會越來越棒的，一定的 <- 前衛花園真是好耳力

團長詹姆斯今天下午的留言。另一篇是關於日本的演出(富士音樂祭?應該吧，summer sonic還沒開始...)，顯然被日本人的工作品質嚇到了(笑)

Taiwan is one of the most amazing places I've ever been to. It seems like every single person is the most friendly and warm and welcoming I've ever come across. We are looking forward to coming back.

(台灣是我去過最令人感到不可思議的地方，彷彿每個人都是我所遇到過最友善、最溫暖、最好客的人。我們希望能夠再來。) <- 台灣人對白人都很友善，是的，老兄你很好運。

We played at the Formoz Festival in Taipei on Sunday evening, probably to the biggest crowd we've ever played to (Loou at the label guessed 2,000 people!), and the queue for our autgographs at the signing tent stretched as far as we could see down the hill. There are lots of photos and videos online, hopefully they'll make it into our archive soon.

(我們星期日晚上在台北的野台音樂祭演出，應該是我們遇到過最多人的一次，前衛花園的工作人員預估有2000人！排隊要拍照和簽名的人，隊伍延伸到我們視線以外的山坡下，網路上一堆照片和影片，我們希望可以把這些都放在我們的資料庫裡。)　<- 吼，見識到台灣人愛拍照愛攝影愛在網路上分享東西的功力了吧！！！

We accidentally gave the festival an out-of-date setlist, which included A Song For Starlit Beaches, which we don't really play live any more. Unfortunately, the organizers had arranged a grand piano for us to play this song, and a team of about 40 Formoz staff had to lift the piano off the stage. We were embarrassed.We did, however, get to see Yo La Tengo play at the Formoz - they were amazing.

(我們之前不小心給了主辦單位過時的歌單，裡面有A Song For Starlit Beaches，可是我們真的已經不再現場表演這首了。但不幸主辦單位還是已經安排了一台超大鋼琴給我們彈，還動用了40個工作人員扛上舞台。我們很尷尬，真的，但還是要去看Yo La Tengo，他們真的超讚的。) <- 囧

(下面就不翻啦，是野台會後趴的東西...)

During the day on Monday I did a special acoustic show at a coffee shop in Taipei, which I enjoyed very much. We got a chance to meet some fans and to spend some time with them. There is a band in Taipei who has a cover of Dash and Blast.

Monday's show at the Wall was amazing, everyone we spoke to about it was so enthusiastic, and the Wall staff were incredibly professional and helpful.

Day 3：LTK/1976/Quruli/8mm sky/Yndi Halda/Hyakkei/YoLaTengo

結論：我是綜藝荊棘花草系←這是啥鬼啊

下午空氣中一連傳來好多個大雷　網路新聞說　有個小颱風要來
以為會是個大雨夜　甚至開始想像穿著雨衣聽尤拉糖果　會是啥模樣
沒想到一滴雨也沒　還附贈夢幻的雲朵藍天　和玫瑰色的夕陽

LTK
　　小柯今天標準農友裝
　　調侃銀杏男孩露鳥　其實只是因為天氣太熱了
　　唱「無解」的時候，說這是一首外國歌
　　（所以你全場都在講外文囉XDD）
　　恩，老話一句，我是衝著秀秀和Robert去的
　　為什麼小柯介紹吉他手的時候，說Mr. 秀秀 Junior？？
　　是小秀秀的意思嗎？？？

1976
　　嗯，聽了十年還是只喜歡方向感...
　　散場的時候看到珊妮和Pinky，想起生日趴時阿凱對珊妮說的話
　　我知道你不喜歡我的風格。嗯啊...但還是謝謝你家的卡夫卡

Quruli
　　好像有點被過度吹捧的感覺，是也蠻好聽的，但我以為他是走民謠路線
　　而且看照片還以為貝斯手是主唱XDDD　所以聽了三首覺得無聊就走了
　　（就整個自以為-_- 明明就只是不對盤）

8mm sky
　　我承認是為了聽Yndi Halda佔個好位子
　　而想必現場有一半以上的人都是這個目的　但也意外聽到好聲音
　　所以還買了他們的唱片　看來會變成以後的live house必聽團
　　補充一下　是後搖團

Yndi Halda
　　放在Nano裡面聽了一整季的音樂　熟悉到簡直倒背如流
　　看來是今晚有志一同的聽團大重點　山舞台擠得水洩不通
　　樂手們顯然也對現場的人數「非常滿意」　
　　吉他手還數度拿起相機對台下拍照
　
　　第一首的前半段閉上眼睛聽　現場演奏果然強過冰冷的錄音
　　音場的飽滿簡直讓人快噴淚啦
　　進入後半段機動爆裂的部份　張開眼睛看樂手的表現
　　卻讓我非常的　噗ㄘ

　　畢竟聽了一整季的東西　已經營造出對作品的一定想像
　　第一眼看到上台的樂手們竟然都嫩得像高中剛畢業　忍不住有點疑惑
　　感覺作品相當深沉呢
　　沒想到演奏爆裂的橋段　竟然也卯起來綜藝路線暴走啊
　　團長還高舉吉他-____-
　　不～～～在我心中你們是有點害羞深沉只能比甜梅號激動一點點的團啊
　　感覺很靦腆的小提琴手還不時偷瞄團長的動作　決定自己要搞得多誇張

　　所以雖然現場反應灰熊灰熊的熱烈
　　但我內心還是非常的XD與矛盾！！！
　　畢竟從今天以後　每當耳機裡傳來他們的音樂時
　　腦袋裡就會出現與樂風完全不搭嘎的舞台表現啊（暈）！！！

　　這個看起來明顯是英國小小團的五個小男生　
　　大概在今天碰上他們人生中史無前例的輝煌場面　　
　　
　　五年內大概不敢再接觸他們的現場表演
　　因為覺得五年後他們會變得更成熟性感些　對表演的掌控力會好些
　　一定會更好看的　到時候

Hyakkei
　　也是為了YoLaTengo有好位子而留在山舞台繼續聽
　　但意外的非常非常非常好聽　一定要去買CD！！！！
　　一樣是三件式的後搖團　一樣非常愛玩stop-start
　　情感非常節制的　日本都會風味的後搖團　好好聽

　　貝斯手是女生的樂團　前途都會一片光明←自創的歪理

YoLaTengo
　　右邊站了一位疑似奇哥的男生　但我一直不敢問
　　左邊站了一個女生喊安可喊到沙啞還畢ㄘㄟ
　　前方的女生全場拿小毛巾擦眼淚
　　這是我人生中最奇妙的一個半小時　（至少可以排進前十名！！！）
　　看著吉他手刷弦刷到超大顆的汗到處亂飛
　　鼓手和貝斯整段毫無鬆懈　配合音場一步一步堆疊推升
　　（腦袋裡至今還滿滿是那些聲音　明天上班一定聽不到同事的交談）

　　但也不忘從噪音中解放大家　搭配大家都會唱的摩托車和叭叭叭
　　喔買尬　隔壁的女生眼淚簡直是用噴的
　　同學我看不出妳有這麼老ㄟ

　　不過叭叭叭那首我也噴淚了
　　看到鼓手略嫌害羞又溫柔地唱著　配著她頭上那顆朦朧的月亮
　　不時傳來隔壁七條龍的燒烤味　這是野台中秋聯歡晚會


睡吧，時間不早了，王建民加油！噗

Yndi Halda: acerbic introspection, home and abroad

Artists: Yndi Halda

Yndi Halda are a Canterbury-based five-piece crafting the kind of epic instrumentals that seem made specifically to soundtrack the dying moments of some swelling star, or that second in a man’s life when his eyes first meet those of the lady he’ll spend each waking moment of his life with ‘til Death comes a knocking. You know – it gets you right there. This writer can barely contain the waterworks, still, whenever the band’s ‘We Flood Empty Lakes’ reaches its stunning climax.

Said song is taken from the band’s EP of earlier this year, Enjoy Eternal Bliss, released through the impeccable Big Scary Monsters label; the band also have deals in the US and Japan. The quintet – James, Jack, Brendan, Daniel and Oliver – are as stunning live as they are on record, too; it’s not entirely uncommon to see attendees at their shows quite literally lose control of themselves. You can witness said behaviour for yourself this weekend, as the Kentish rockers perform at the free-entry DiScover Club at London’s Notting Hill Arts Club, alongside These Monsters and Shady Bard.

Do please click HERE for all the details you’ll need on the show, which starts at 4pm. Our advice: do arrive early, as we’re expecting a busy one.

DiS exchanged some questions and answers with James ahead of the DiScover Club gig…

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First question is almost always the same: where, why and how did the band form? Why choose an Icelandic name? Why be an instrumental band? What groups, if any, were members in before Yndi…?

How the band formed is quite easy, really. We were all school friends, and played in lots of bands together, gradually learning to play our instruments better as we did so. When we were around 16 we discovered bands like Tortoise, Labradford and Sigur Rós and we were absolutely stunned by their ability to achieve lyricism without lyrics and felt that we could do the same. We wrote Enjoy Eternal Bliss when we were around 17-18.

The band’s name is actually Eddic, which is an ancient Norse dialect that’s quite commonly associated with early Icelandic. It comes from a millennia-old poem called Odin’s Raven Magic, that we saw Hilmar Orn Hilmarsson – the Icelandic film score composer – perform and conduct a musical interpretation of a few years ago. There was something about the shape of the words and their meaning that completely captured everything musical we intended when we started writing those songs.

Enjoy Eternal Bliss picked up its fair share of flipping awesome – for want of some better adjective mangling – reviews around its release, and you’ve been tipped here, there and everywhere… just why, do you think, does the band have such a broad appeal?

We were completely overwhelmed by the amount of positive responses the record received. As I mention above, we were just kids when we wrote those songs, we had no idea that we’d be preparing to go to Tokyo a little while after the record was released. I like to think that our appeal comes from our expression of sentiment – we write and play joyously, and people like to feel joy – so if we’ve done as we intended to, then it’s recognisable in our songs.

You must be proud of the reception Enjoy… received, but was there any negativity at all? Would you rather stimulate an either/or reaction – a love or hate – rather than a shrug and an ‘it’s okay’?

We have had some negative reviews; I don’t think anything is unsusceptible to them. Those reviews seem to be largely concerned with the length of the songs and the lack of vocals, which is not something that really troubles us. I think I’d definitely much rather that reactions were polarised but passionate. I seem to remember someone wrote ‘mediocrity is the enemy of the good’, which seems quite applicable, but I can’t remember who said it or if it’s right.

Comparisons: I guess they’re varied, but within a certain field… does the post-rock tag blow a little, or is there no easily comprehensible alternative to it? What about bands: which acts are you most commonly compared to, and which are flattering (and which aren’t)?

Sometimes I wonder about the comparisons that reviewers make between us and other bands. I guess we didn’t really plan on ‘sounding like’ anyone else; we just wrote the sorts of songs that were the sounds of our heads, which just ended up as long, instrumental, and orchestrated with quiet parts and loud parts (songs, not heads). We don’t really mind the term ‘post-rock’, but I don’t think we’ve ever called ourselves it.

Names like Explosions in the Sky, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Sigur Rós crop up quite often, but those are the sorts of bands that I think of when I say that it’s coincidence that people hear similarities between us. I prefer to think of us as something like ‘extended instrumental cinematic indie-folk with loud parts’. We listen to bands like the Arcade Fire, the National, Sufjan Stevens, Modest Mouse and so on, a lot more than the bands we’re compared to, oddly.

What about influences? Do the bands you’re often compared to rate as influences, or do you look beyond music for inspiration more often than not?

We definitely do find inspiration in fields other than music. We write in a barn at the top of a hill in a tiny fishing village on the south-east coast, and the view of the fields and the sea and the hills is a huge inspiration to us. Sometimes I think I should just show people a photo of that view to describe what we sound like – “we are this, in music”!

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'Dash And Blast' (first part, live)
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You’ve toured abroad, I see: do crowds on the continent vary, in particular, from domestic audiences? Do you feel that, as an instrumental act, you can be ‘understood’ in any country. After all, I am sure the emotional resonance in the songs translates across the board.

Continental crowds seem to be more honest than home crowds – they will say things like, “I enjoyed the first song, but your tuning was a bit off; also, the sound was not so good on the snare drum”. I think it applies in both directions – they’re less worried about potentially upsetting the band, but also less worried about seeming enthusiastic. When they like something, they seem to really like it. We sold every single item of merchandise we took with us, hundreds of CDs, t-shirts, vinyl, it was awe-inspiring and an incredible sensation that people were so excited, and that some people travelled so far to come and see us – a Polish couple drove 250km to Berlin for our show!

From the amount of people that were so willing to speak in English to us – so many, in fact, that our school-age French and German lessons were almost entirely unnecessary – I would guess that being an instrumental band doesn’t necessarily equate to having a non-locally-confined appeal.

Is there a follow-up to Enjoy Eternal Bliss in the works? Will there be a full-blown album, or do you treat the four-track …Bliss as your debut album (it is long enough, for sure)? Are things progressing positively, generally… in all matters musical and the business that surrounds the crafting of songs?

We’re planning to either get started with a full-length (which we have some aesthetic ideas for already), or to write a collaboration with another band (which we have some email addresses for already). I really hope we do both, but I guess if we do the full-length first we probably won’t have time to do the collaboration, which would be a shame.

We’ve started writing some parts – which hopefully should be debuted live on Saturday – that we’re confident are the best we’ve ever written. They’re different from the EP; vocal, more mature and with more practiced instrument abilities (looking back at some of my guitar parts from the EP, they seem so simple and quite childish, really).

We don’t really consider Enjoy Eternal Bliss our debut album, because we’re not really happy enough with it to place all the stigma surrounding ‘debut album’ on it. We think of it more as ‘tentative steps before a leap’, which is especially true at the moment because we’re asked about the next record so often and so enthusiastically.

Also, forthcoming tours: are you venturing out in a van anytime soon? Any more trips planned abroad?

The next tour (actually we’re not officially titling it a ‘tour’, because of its brevity) will be in Asia: we leave on July 24 and are doing five shows in all taking in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and China. We’re beyond excited about it! After the summer we’ll try to do another UK tour, before heading over the other ocean and playing to the Americans.

Have you had a chance to listen to the other bands playing on June 23… any opinions?

Unfortunately my computer’s a little too broken to handle mp3s currently, but we’ve played with Shady Bard before and we’re big fans. I’m looking forward to getting their record on Saturday. I’ve heard great things about These Monsters’ live set, too.

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For more information on all things Yndi Halda, and to hear samples, click to their MySpace page here. The band play in Luton the day before the Discover Club (details), and have a number of additional dates confirmed before they head to Asia. Do click to their MySpace page for details.

Photograph by Leanne Powell

Words: Mike Diver

yndi halda。Formoz。

要來了，這個聽了一個月的團。

每天早上走路去辦公室的途中聽一首，下班走回家的途中聽一首。如果那天不太想上班，小提琴的聲音就加重抑鬱；如果那天有很好的工作心情，整個後搖的氣氛讓腦袋很清新。

"we have confirmed with the Formoz Festival in Taiwan, which will be very exciting. Mercury Rev and Yo La Tengo recently confirmed too, both of whom feature highly in our record collections. Explosions in the Sky pulled out, sadly. Details here: Formoz.com "


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可惜天空爆炸不能到，祝福樂手的家人早日康復。