Despite receiving rave reviews for their third album 'Flying Wonders', Manchester's Homelife are still something of a secret waiting for the world to discover them.
This is despite being vocally supported by DJ and music guru Gilles Peterson, who's on the decks tonight for his monthly 'Worldwide Live' set.
Given their extremely diverse sound, which borrows sounds from a plethora of instruments, it's no surprise when the band troop onto stage in a seemingly endless stream of twelve members.
Considerable brainpower would be needed to solve this puzzling stage conundrum - where to fit a full drum kit, a double bass, several synthesizers, a kettle drum, any number of other exotic instrumentation as well as a small army of musicians.
Their music is impossible to pin down or describe. It hints of classical, techno, jazz, African and Latin rhythms. Here Chinese strings and operatic vocals, there steel drums and trippy flutes. It is at once endearingly chaotic.
The horns and wind instruments are mostly synthesised, the lack of space probably being responsible for them losing a number of their motley crew. The only exception being the clarinet, blasted intermittently by lead singer Seaming To (surely the best name in rock and roll!).
'Flying Wonders', played early on in the set, is repeated again at the end. A fine ensemble of strings and percussion, smattered with smidgens of electronic samples and catchy vocals.
The audience and Gilles Peterson bray for more, catching Homelife wrong-footed, unused to attention such as this. After a bewildered silence Paddy Steer, the foreman and bassist (amongst other things), steps up to the mic and quips "You've confused us …dunno what to do now".
More silence, then finally "Err, we'll have a go at this …". Unfortunately, the delivery of the encore is unpolished and finishes the set on a slight dampener.
But apart from that, a very fine performance, indeed.
