[Photos by Ryan Muir and courtesy of Metromix]
Last night’s industry showcase performance by Oh Land at Hiro Ballroom gave full evidence of the amount of dues that the former ballerina and current model/emerging pop star has paid over the past year – and the extent to which they have paid off. It struck me how many gigs like this she has probably played – to mixed rooms of her most fervent supporters and some who are just there to be seen – yet she remains graceful, kind and seemingly unfazed by the starmaking process. Work back from this very-well-attended celebration of a show through the latter part of last year, and you’ll find every type of appearance imaginable – a small club gig at Mercury Lounge, opening gigs for Mates of State, seemingly endless and tireless CMJ appearances, playing Brooklyn Bowl for our friends’ Brunch After Dark, and earlier, their backyard for Backyard Brunch Sessions, the Northside Festival, SXSW…. By the time that her second Brooklyn Bowl show rolled around, Oh Land’s performances had already become much more refined than her first Brooklyn Bowl appearance at the Northside Festival – true pop star performances, not merely a pretty girl, a keyboard and her “contraption” (a combination drum machine/keyboard/projector, I believe it is). This Hiro show presaged the logical next phase of her career as her first full length for Epic Records is released in March – when her music’s fan base has fully transitioned from the blog world to clubland and the mainstream beyond. Her repertoire has diversified a bit in that direction; a new club-ready song I had not heard before was in the mix, as well as the anthems “We Turn It Up” and another one I had not heard before, which I will call “Human.” But what separates Oh Land from typical pop music (even highly lauded, but ultimately terrible Scandinavian pop music), is her playful spirit, her quirkiness, and her unforced songwriting; any artist who calls her live show “Mary Poppins on acid” has probably put any Katy Perry comparisons on hold. Oh Land’s very busy 2011 already has another big moment – the opening slot for the comeback performance of Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark at Terminal 5 later this year. We wish her an exciting and wonderful year.
I recorded this set with the Schoeps microphones on a 13-foot stand next to the soundboard. Unfortunately, the soundboard feed that was provided only contained the drum machine’s feed and was mostly useless, so this is an almost-all audience recording that does contain some noise from the bar crowd. Therefore, it is not quite up to our usual standards, but remains an accurate capture of the evening. For a truly outstanding Oh Land recording, I recommend that you download the shorter but better-sounding Brunch After Dark/Brooklyn Bowl recording as well/instead. Enjoy!
Special thanks to Epic Records for inviting nyctaper to this performance. Don’t miss Oh Land’s as-yet-untitled LP when it is released on March 15.
Stream “We Turn It Up”
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/O0627OhLand0210/13 We Turn It Up.mp3]
Stream “Sun of a Gun”:
[audio:https://www.nyctaper.com/O0627OhLand0210/06 Sun of A Gun.mp3]
Direct download of MP3 files [HERE]
Download the Complete show in FLAC [HERE].
Oh Land
2011-01-26
Hiro Ballroom
New York, NY
An acidjack master recording
Recorded and produced by acidjack for nyctaper.com
Equipment: Schoeps CMC6/mk41+Soundboard>Edirol R-44 [Oade Concert Mod] (24/48)
Position: At soundboard, ROC, mics pointed at stacks at 13ft
Mastering: 2x24bit/48kHz WAV>Audacity (EQ, mixdown)>Audition (multiband compression)>Audacity (compress clapping, tracking, set fades, downsample to 44.1khz/16bit)>FLAC ( level 8 )
Tracks
01 Perfection
02 [new]
03 [banter]
04 Break the Chain
05 Wolf and I
06 Sun of a Gun
07 Lean on Me
08 banter
09 Helicopter
10 Human
11 White Nights
12 [encore break]
13 We Turn It Up
14 Rainbow
If you download this recording from NYCTaper, we expect that you will PLEASE SUPPORT Oh Land, visit her website, purchase her EP, which is available at all major retailers, on iTunes and here, and purchase her upcoming LP when it is released on Epic Records on March 15.
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