Nilüfer Yanya w/ Angelica Garcia, Lutalo at The Bottleneck, Lawrence KS (2024-10-13)

From ‘Miss Universe’ to a ‘method actor’, she’s probably the greatest UK/Turkish alternative singer/guitarist you’ll ever hear-

Nilüfer Yanya and band made their first trip into the state for a Sunday night show at The Bottleneck in downtown Lawrence, in support of just-released third full-length, “My Method Actor” via her new label, Ninja Tune.

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The three-act evening began with a short opening set from MN raised /Vermont-based Lutalo (Jones) who recently released the debut album titled The Academy (via Windspear Records), naming the record after the St Paul Academy/Summit School in St. Paul, MN attended on scholarship (near our own former stomping grounds). It’s the follow-up to the August 2023 Again EP, they’ve been our radar since 2021, and we last caught their live show about a year ago, also in St. Paul.

Jones may have a look similar to a subdued young Terence Trent D’arby, but the music is a lo-fi fuzz rock that blends some folk, experimental, and bedroom elements into the musical gumbo that ends up defining their sound.

Jones' father shared some early drum lessons to help point the path to music, but Lutalo spent the set instead playing guitar, trading riffs with Fender Mustand playing bassist, though the beats were always present as well as truth-speaking lyrics, perhaps inspired by Big Thief songwriter and guitarist Adrianne Lenker, who Jones and band previously toured with.

It’s great to see another artist with MN roots and a bright future, break on a more national level, and to wider appeal.

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In a total genre shift, the next act was Richmond VA (via Los Angeles) singer songwriter Angélica Garcia, in support of her third full-length, and first for Partisan Records, “Gemelo” (which means twin). Garcia’s blend of cumbia, dancehall, and tribal pop found her on stage accompanied by only her long-haired Chilean friend on drums, curled up in a ball on the floor, as her set began.

As the drums beat, she emerged first to kneel, then stand and released, metamorphosing in form to the rhythmic beats and at the same time, seemingly trying to conjure something from the darkness with her dance movements. She sang entirely in Spanish on tracks like “Juanita” about “a limitless woman- full of magic and wonder” and dramatically moved about the stage to enhance her expressive lyrics.

The crowd was as enveloped in the performance as the artist herself, perhaps channeling a visitation of spirits in a stomping march across the stage. She taught the audience some minimal Spanish, so that everyone could sing the chorus back on “Paloma”, which means ‘dove’ and repeating “Aquí me encuentra” on the chorus, meaning ‘here you find me’.

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Lawrence was fortunate to be listed as an early stop on UK/Turkish singer/guitarist’s Nilüfer Yanya’s tour itinerary as her new third full-length album, "My Method Actor" (via Ninja Tune Records) was extra fresh, just being released a couple of weeks previous.

Yanya has been steadily building a growing fan base since her initial EP releases in the late 2010s, mostly in Europe and the UK, but thanks to the internet, her music has taken hold stateside as well. This was evidenced by a clearly gleeful crowd, many of which knew the words, danced along, and acted out in freeform to the music.

As far as the music itself, it often builds gradually on a beginning simple beat or riff, and grows exponentially to make most songs immersive, with each selection effortlessly moving into the next (thanks in part to several bridging interludes). Her between song conversations were minimal (preferring to let the music do the talking), but she did acknowledge this being her first time in the area and was happy to see the crowd so accepting and responsive.

She played a healthy dose of the new record, beginning the eighty-minute set with the album’s title track and thanked the crowd mid-set for appreciating the new material. Each of her band seemed very skilled players in their own right, including Hackney UK’s saxophonist/keyboardist Jazzi Bobbi (Dreissen) who has a developing solo career and debut EP of her own, “Crush” just out in August.

The band has previously opened for Adele in Hyde Park for BST (only some 65,000 people there) and also provided support for Roxy Music on their European Tour, which seems like a natural with Yanya’s complex yet accessible songs, and Driessen’s sax flourishes that embellish the verses (often similar to “Avalon”-era Andy Mackay).

Yanya’s vocals are dreamy, but subtle and malleable- she can sound almost on the verge of tears one minute and more confident and assured the next, all of which enhances the mood and textures within the music.

The body of the main set was to introduce the new album, but predictably the crowd responded with greater energy for the older and more familiar, with the last three songs coming from 2022’s breakout album, “Painless”, ending with the half-sung/half-spoken single. “stabilise” which sounds like fellow UK band Wet Leg, but was made well before there was a Wet Leg on the airwaves.

The encore opened with a smart PJ Harvey cover of “Rid of Me” (a song the band released as a “Painless” bonus track), with Yanya playing the first half of the song alone (much in the spirit of a raw Polly Jean), before the full band joined to finish things with volume.

“I better turn this up, I hope it drowns you out” she sang on the evening-ending “midnight sun”, the second single from “Painless” and the band did just that- starting slow and meticulously before building their wall of sound, only to slightly drop it near the end, with one final sax flourish, as the audience cheered.

Three acts, three genres – Lutalo, Angelica Garcia, and Nilüfer Yanya, all of which made for a very satisfying and musically diverse evening, like a three-course prix-fixe meal in a fine restaurant.