Next Thursday, on the 30th August, Manchester’s HMV Ritz will see Canadian Clare Boucher perform what will be an avant-garde and bizzarre set (if her new video is anything to go by). Better known as Grimes, this gig has already seen it have such popularity that promoters Now Wave decided to move the gig to the Ritz to accomodate the demand for tickets.
3 albums into her career, it’s her latest body of work – Visions – that has thrown her into international acclaim. A unique sound including vocal looping, synths and beats there is seemingly no end of influences and genres that can be found in her music, if you look hard enough.
Her new video for Genesis has just been put into the public arena and you can see that’s it’s pretty, well, weird. From snakes to fancy dress there’s a lot to get your head around. But then Grimes has past history of doing things out of the box.
In 2009, Boucher and her then-boyfriend decided to sail down the Mississippi River from Minneapolis to New Orleans. Seems normal enough. Well it would be if they weren’t sailing in a self-constructed 20-foot houseboat, named the “Velvet Glove Cast in Iron” with the pair adopting the names “Varuschka” and “Zelda Xox” for the trip. This year she also announced a line of jewellery influenced by the shape of the vulva…
For us this just makes us realise that there is nothing fake about her eccentric nature, she has always been this way. Which is great, isn’t it? There’s a very British appeal to someone who decides to do something creatively because they feel it’s right, regardless of how ridiculous it sounds. All this just makes the wait for her show more exciting.
words by Daniel Savage (@nosauceplease)
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