Aussie Tash Sultana is the kind of person you’d see pick up a guitar at an after party at 4am and then by 5am have everyone there crowded into one room staring open-mouthed.
The Aussie is still only 21-years-old but she’s got a hell of a cult following around the world. The multi-talented musician has 23 million Spotify hits on her top two tracks and has been selling out venues across the world, including in London, where we were lucky enough to catch her.
Scala, just a minute’s walk from King’s Cross Station, was a banger of a venue. It’s intimate but not tiny with a capacity of 1,145 and the layers work well for a view of the stage – which is important when you’re watching Tash, as you’re going to want to see the live-looping ingenuity unfold on stage.
This girl has some serious raw talent. She wails on electric guitar like a low-key Jimi Hendrix. She has serious skills on the trumpet. She can play the panpipes – and probably every other musical instrument you can think of. And she plays music on her own terms, too.
“We have to make three minute songs for the radio but this is how it’s meant to sound!” she tells the crowd after about 15 minutes of thrashing electric goodness out on stage.
Truth be told, though Tash’s set is almost an hour and a half long, you wouldn’t need both hands to count the number of songs she plays – the tracks are long, raw, uncensored, sensitive journeys delivered with an indulgence both refreshing and hypnotic.
The Aussie is still only 21-years-old but she’s got a hell of a cult following around the world. The multi-talented musician has 23 million Spotify hits on her top two tracks and has been selling out venues across the world, including in London, where we were lucky enough to catch her.
Scala, just a minute’s walk from King’s Cross Station, was a banger of a venue. It’s intimate but not tiny with a capacity of 1,145 and the layers work well for a view of the stage – which is important when you’re watching Tash, as you’re going to want to see the live-looping ingenuity unfold on stage.
This girl has some serious raw talent. She wails on electric guitar like a low-key Jimi Hendrix. She has serious skills on the trumpet. She can play the panpipes – and probably every other musical instrument you can think of. And she plays music on her own terms, too.
“We have to make three minute songs for the radio but this is how it’s meant to sound!” she tells the crowd after about 15 minutes of thrashing electric goodness out on stage.
Truth be told, though Tash’s set is almost an hour and a half long, you wouldn’t need both hands to count the number of songs she plays – the tracks are long, raw, uncensored, sensitive journeys delivered with an indulgence both refreshing and hypnotic.
We watch on as Tash records bits and pieces to loop before starting each track on a variation of instruments, then unleashes them in perfect timing to make the crowd go wild.
“It’s crazy coming to the other side of the world and having English people know the words to your songs,” says Tash with a huge grin on her face. “Let’s do that bit again!”
Hits ‘Jungle’, ‘Notion’ and ‘Murder to the Mind’ do indeed have the whole crowd singing along. And the gig has that house party sense throughout. It’s intimate, the audience are having fun, chatting between the tracks (which added a little discontinuity but a nice atmosphere), the cans of Red Stripe were out in force and when Tash gets going the place goes nuts.
Seeing Sultana live is a must for anyone who loves her music – that unadulterated purity that comes through so well in the studio recordings translates well and truly to the stage.
We can’t think of anyone else this fresh who could sign off a show with a ten-minute guitar solo and have the audience in raptures by the end. The applause in abundance was hard-earned on stage.
4/5
“It’s crazy coming to the other side of the world and having English people know the words to your songs,” says Tash with a huge grin on her face. “Let’s do that bit again!”
Hits ‘Jungle’, ‘Notion’ and ‘Murder to the Mind’ do indeed have the whole crowd singing along. And the gig has that house party sense throughout. It’s intimate, the audience are having fun, chatting between the tracks (which added a little discontinuity but a nice atmosphere), the cans of Red Stripe were out in force and when Tash gets going the place goes nuts.
Seeing Sultana live is a must for anyone who loves her music – that unadulterated purity that comes through so well in the studio recordings translates well and truly to the stage.
We can’t think of anyone else this fresh who could sign off a show with a ten-minute guitar solo and have the audience in raptures by the end. The applause in abundance was hard-earned on stage.
4/5
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