Live Review: Seekae, Jonti

South African born Jonti takes the stage before an engaged and attentive public. His music is accessible and deceptively simple – everyone bops their heads as if they’re on a pleasant elevator ride – yet, when you shut your eyes, sway along and listen just like the rest of the perfect strangers in the room you realise that there is surprising depth to all of his tunes.

With the venue full to bursting, the hubbub drowns out the subtle nondescript synth that announces Seekae’s impending arrival on stage. However, as soon as the volume becomes audible enough to make the crowd pay attention, Seekae appear under copious amounts of smoke as the lights slowly come up. Their set includes tracks from upcoming album The Worry (to be released in September) and their previous releases The Sound Of Trees Falling On People and +Dome. Tracks Void and 3 are definite crowd-pleasers with the audience indulging in the absorbing beats. Reset Head sees John Hassell providing the central riff live on guitar and Alex Cameron shows his skills on the drum kit for the last half of the set.

Tracks from The Worry, such as Test & Recognise, are typified by catchy riffs and pensive lyrics as sung by Cameron. This forthcoming album sees the band step away from their usual introspective, atmospheric themes. Another is accompanied by lighting effects that are reminiscent of Battles’ Tonto film clip, with vertical fluoros flashing in time with the pulsating beat that forms the track’s backbone. The lighting design throughout is fantastic, enhancing the overall experience to no end and engaging everyone throughout. Furthermore, it shows the band’s understanding that solely watching three dudes onstage playing laptops isn’t actually interesting. At the conclusion of the set, the audience is oddly silent due to an onstage miscommunication that makes the planned encore even more obvious. However, Seekae call the crowd’s bluff with everyone screaming for their return when they realise that encores do actually need requesting. Seekae comply, playing their 8-bit-infused wonder Centaur.

Seekae combine great sounds, lights and beats to bring a professional show that doesn’t fail to entertain.