The Klittens
Old Blue Last, London
 

OUT on a British tour on the back of the release of their second single, Butter, Dutch female five piece The Klittens cast a welcome alt-rock spell over The Old Blue Last. 

Over 10 tracks and some 45 minutes their melodic rock, taut lyrics and encouraging aura gets a groove going, although the most fun is happening on stage as the band embrace their performance. 

From the get-go it’s a whirl of jangly guitar, drums and dancing all ably held together by lead singer Yael Dekker. The look and feel is reminiscent of The Last Dinner Party with the band in white dresses and lead singer in black, apart from the drummer doing her own thing in green; but there’s more to say about The Klittens. 

For a band founded as a platform for their political ideas rather than their musical prowess, as soon as they hit the stage you can tell that they know instinctively where to take the music, even though they have a habit of shifting across genres.

That’s because the band devolve songwriting with each member taking the lead on separate tracks. So you have the multi-layered melody of Atlas, mainly written by guitarist Katja Kahana, while singer Dekker’s Universal Experience echoes the much under-rated plaintive indie pop of The Research crossed with post-punk grooves a la Franz Ferdinand. 

You also get oddities like Liebe Resi, sung in German, which comes across as a Teutonic version of early Warpaint. There’s shades of Sonic Youth, jangly guitar that would not be out of place on a C86 anthology, and Pixies-esque loud and quiet… In fact, they’re all just good albeit quite different tracks. 

Although claiming not to be musicians, they build fine and multi-layered melodies. They’re not record moguls but actively self-releasing their own records (on vinyl and cassette). They curate their own Klitfest festival, and they’re warm and welcoming to the extent that even the angry songs have a nice bite. 

Amazingly tight on stage, they’re a collective triumph of a delightful DIY ethos that works, and one where The Klittens warmly welcome you into their world. Dive in.

On tour in Britain until July 27. For more information see: ents24.com.