Arts:Blog

Vile Cuts--April 27, 2011

Gareth K Vile looks at the music of Joe Quimby and Daniel Higgs.
Whether he is giving it all that as the singer in his band Take a Worm for a Walk Week, or frightening dance audiences in collaboration with Iona Kewney, Joe Quimby is never less than intense. If Hivver is his atmospheric project, building washes of sound and ethereal drones from his guitar through a table of pedals, the sinister undertow, and Quimby’s serious presence on stage insists that he isn’t going softly ambient. Filtering and distorting his guitar into a series of lapping loops, Hivver are less little fluffy clouds than vast landscapes, ravaged by time and, despite their modern, electric hum, strangely timeless. Without the strict rhythms of TaWfaWW, or the minimalist drive of his Kewney team ups, Quimby sculpts lullabies in sound, albeit with a Grimm subtext.

Daniel Higgs has the look of an ancient mountain man: his banjo ragas come from a distillation of his bluegrass picking and a rich voice that can infuse his cosmic lyrics with a grace and depth that belies the rather confused mysticism that defines them as “freak folk”. Rapidly leaping into extended workouts, he embodies an American fringe that has been packaged by the fusion of alternative rock and country as Americana. Despite the intensity of his playing, he is approachable and friendly: he chats easily with the audience, does a quick dance to the tune in his head and leads his trio through lengthy jams based on simple picking melodies. The rest of his trio don’t add much, apart from decoration to his flights – a more confident line up might push him beyond even his musical boundaries. As an original talent, however, Higgs is an astonishing performer, like a relic of an previously consider extinct tribe of folk musicians.