There seems to be an odd reluctance to label anything ‘goth’ these days, but Carla Dal Forno’s You Know What It’s Like is pure goth: dark, minimalist, eerily nostalgic in sentiment but progressive in execution. All in black, she appears on the dark velvet stage of Alice as if it had been specially built for her.
Despite the austere trappings, there is also something very affable about Dal Forno, who early in the set apologises for having lost her voice this evening. But the result emphasises the ghostly quality of the vocals already present on the record. The lyrics are hidden away under synthesised drum patterns and a ghostly wash of ambient noise.
The ambient glitches and buzzes are a backdrop for the entire set, connecting all the songs. The effect then is of a continuous piece, interspersed with awkward moments when people in the audience look at each other wondering whether it’s appropriate to clap. The nordic reticence must but a little daunting at first for a performer, but Dal Forno soon twigs to this and pierces the veil by introducing the songs.
“Fast Moving Cars” and “What Are You Gonna Do Now” are delightfully antithetical to what you would expect songs with those titles to sound like, slow and silky. Performed live, they spread to fill the room as if consuming all oxygen.
