Not many bands can boast two drummers and an uncluttered sound, but that's Polica, who somehow provided a seamless transition between rapper Sugar Tongue Slim and the atmospheric rock band Lower Dens at NPR Music's SXSW day party, held Thursday at The Parish in Austin, Texas. At The Parish, the band toned down the heavily manipulated vocals of Channy Leaneagh — on the new Give You the Ghost, her voice slides lithely all over the place — to reveal her as a bold, even ferocious singer in her own right.
Thanks to the high-profile endorsement of Bon Iver's Justin Vernon — whose sometime collaborator Ryan Olson (Gayngs) produced Give You the Ghost — Polica attracted enormous pre-SXSW hype. The band already had a large built-in following in the Upper Midwest thanks to support from The Current and members' past work in the folk-pop band Roma di Luna. But Polica appears on the brink of something more worldwide, thanks in part to polished and propulsive, word-of-mouth-inducing live shows like this one. Where Give You the Ghost gives the suggestion of a subdued live presence, Polica's stage show heads to somewhere approaching the opposite extreme — a welcome jolt of beauty and power.
Set List:
Credits
Producers: Amy Schriefer and Robin Hilton; Video by: XI Media; Audio Engineer: Kevin Wait
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