Poignant and poetic, the music of Kiwi Aldous Harding is worth devoting your Friday night to when she plays SOhO Restaurant & Music Club (1221 State St.) on October 11 with Hand Habits. Her songs are quietly rhythmic and sparse with reveries of piano and plucked acoustics; her words are deep and opaque. Fans of Feist, Kate Bush, and Joanna Newsom would find much to love in her work. The tracks on her critically lauded new album, Designer, are bold and artful, but not loudly so, with subtler and stranger depth than meets the ear.
There must be something in the water in the enchanted land of New Zealand, which of late has blessed the world of indie rock with music of newfound invention and relevance. But Harding seems cut from a cloth all her own, an enigmatically sensitive soul no matter where she’d roam or settle. Catch a chance to hear her while you can.
Hand Habits, too, are worth getting there right on time for. Their music is transfixing and somewhat dreamy, like hearing through faded film. Also a studio musician for acts such as The War on Drugs and Weyes Blood, Hand Habits push all the right buttons for indie-rock enthusiasts with their hazy guitar harmonies. It’s sure to be a night of musical excellence.