great area at Rozz-Tox -- November 22.
Friday, November 22, 8 p.m.
Rozz-Tox, 2108 Third Avenue, Rock Island IL
With their previous releases including 2021's hypocrite, 2022's Follow Your Nature, and this year's critics' hit Light Decline, the London-based artists of great area headline a November 22 at Rock Island venue Rozz-Tox, their music, according to Boomkat.com, "set to pique attentions of Bar Italia, Broadcast, Carla Dal Forno, Victor De Roo, or Susu Laroche fans."
As the Boomkat.com review for great area's 2022 recording continues, "Puckered with instantly memorable hooks and subtly shimmering with micro-dosed textures, Follow Your Nature is one for connoisseurs of lokey pop with a contemporary but knowingly retro slant. Indicative of a wider subculture that’s back-pedalling into the present future, great area’s second album follows introductions made on the xquisite releases label in ’21, and a song on the Left Alone label’s compilation Everything Was Supposed to Be So Easy with their most substantial - if exactingly succinct - suite of songs for modern dreamers and pop music cherry-pickers.
"With no one song ever outstaying its welcome, the elegant effortlessness of Follow Your Nature betrays a mind for fine-tuned songwriting under the hood. Classic synth-pop levels of efficiency are evident on every tune, with the cantering title song measuring distance between The Raincoats, Broadcast, and Carla Dal Forno via uncanny traces of smeared electronics, and ‘everytime’ recalling the off-the-cuff style of Relaxin Records’ label boss Alina Astrova (a.k.a. Hype Williams’ Inga Copland) as much as Bar Italia’s baroque indie pop or the new-old lustre of Victor De Roo’s Kontakt Group delicacies. One listen to the loping goth-pop jangle of ‘so very’ or the wrong-end-of-telescope grand sashay to ‘dust’ and the Eastern-facing ’shipping’ will either have you properly snagged or shrugging, there’s no mid ground."
great area plays their Rock island engagement on November 22 with an additional set by Gabriel Dowie, a musical project currently exploring ethereal and intimate textures, extended harmony, and asymmetric forms and rhythms. Admission to the 8 p.m. all-ages concert is $15 in advance and $20 at the door, and more information and tickets are available by calling (309)200-0978 and visiting RozzTox.com.
