POM POKO
Aiken Promotions presents
POM POKO
plus support
^ Upstairs ^
DEBUT ALBUM ‘BIRTHDAY’ ANNOUNCED FOR RELEASE FEB 22, 2019
NEW SINGLE ‘MY BLOOD’ NOW STREAMING ONLINE
Aiken Promotions proudly present Pom Poko live at Whelans (Upstairs), 6th April 2019. Tickets €13.00 inclusive of booking fee, on sale now. Pom Poko has announced their debut album, ‘Birthday’, released on 22nd February 22nd 2019, via Bella Union.
Between the quartet’s sweetly punky melodies and disco-fried art-rock eruptions, a spirit of free-firing, balls-out individuality courses through this exhilarating debut.
The band marked their Bella Union signing earlier this year with the unveiling of the raucous and unpredictable ‘Follow The Lights’, with its cacophonous and hulking beat acting as an impressive statement of intent from the new signees. With their debut album announcement today, Pom Poko have shared another new single in the form of ‘My Blood’. Barely tamed by a time signature, rapidly shifting between various keys, chaotic & boisterous, the high-energy track sets an exciting tone for the album as a whole.
Pom Poko are Ragnhild (lead vocals), Ola (Drums), Jonas (Bass) and Martin (Guitar). The 4 met whilst all studying at the Trondheim Music Conservatory in Norway and quickly garnered interest from a wider audience as they began playing and writing together. The group cite a range of influences for their unique sound, including “(West)-African music like Oumou Sangaré and Ali Farka Touré; indie bands like Vulfpeck, Palm and KNOWER; noisy high-energy bands such as Hella and Death Grips; and music with interesting lyrics such as Jenny Hval and Nick Drake.” But you’d struggle to pin them down to one or two forebears, given their resistance to anything resembling a prescriptive approach.
Speaking about the origin of their name, which taken from one of the more vigorously outré films by Japanese animation visionaries Studio Ghibli, the band explain, “The Pom Poko film captures a lot of what we’d like our concerts to be: high energy, fast pace, lots of stimulus for eyes and ears – and most importantly, really crazy and fun. The movie is basically the time of your life for two hours, and afterwards you’re in some state of exhausted ecstasy. Plus the raccoons in the movie, and raccoons in general, are really badass.”
The band’s own bad-ass-ery is writ large on album opener ‘Theme1’, which locates a sweet spot between Deerhoof and Battles as singer Ragnhild issues loud, clear rebel yells over Martin’s math-rock guitar. Singles ‘My Blood’ and ‘Follow The Lights’ layer seductively sweet melodies over squalls of sound, while the funk-fired ‘My Work Is Full of Art’ offers a kind of mission statement: “I’ll just let freaky surround me,” sings Fangel.
Elsewhere, Pom Poko’s instinctive dynamism teases uplifting thrills from boundary-melting experiments. Glacial shards of guitar bounce off steel-drum flurries on the rapid-fire serotonin fix of ‘Blue’, before the sweetly infatuated ‘Honey’ comes sequenced next to the thrashing tonal lurches of ‘Crazy Energy Night’.
The sing-song title-track spikes the ranks of sweetly sad birthday songs with a rebellious sting (“I’m not your bitch!”), while ‘Daytripper’ is a commanding come-on from a band who are no more likely to mince their words than limit their range. ‘If U Want Me 2 Stay’ resembles ‘The Tra La La Song’ retooled as a sci-fi cyber-pop anthem of carefree defiance, while ‘Peachy’ closes the album with an exultant melody and one last declaration of transformative independence: “Watch me as I shape shift.”
Pom Poko recently wrapped an extensive run of European dates with Darwin Deez – including a dazzling set at London’s Village Underground – and numerous festival appearances – including Reeperbahn and Waves Vienna – whilst next month will see another first when the band make their debut at Iceland Airwaves festival, in Reykjavik on 10th November.
PRESS ACCLAIM FOR POM POKO:
“Add them to your list. Write it on your shoes. Write it on your forehead. Tell everybody you’ve found your favourite new band” – Phil Taggart, BBC Radio 1
“A band with serious scope and potential” – NME 100 for 2018
“The intensity and fizziness of a bottle of Coke and pack of Mentos” – DIY
“The sheer energy of the performance will leave you slack-jawed in bewilderment” – Clash
“Instantly brilliant, engaging…and hopefully a band who have a lot more up their sleeve” – The Line of Best Fit
“on a mission to prove themselves the most riotous party guitar band on the planet and entirely succeeding” – The Independent
“both punk- and prog-rock, as well as a viable female threat” – The New York Times
TICKETS
€22 available online from WAV Tickets or Lo-Call 1890 200 078 (1-7pm M-F)
– 50c per ticket service charge applies on phone, internet or creditcard bookings. Final ticket price may be higher from other outlets.
Strictly over 18′s, I.D. may be required.
AFTER THE GIG
Whelan’s Indie Club w/ Late Bar from 10:30pm or check out the bands playing The Midnight Hour in the upstairs venue – Free Entry via front door until 10:30pm | Drinks Promos