Jul 26, 7pm, IMNet Music Centre
It's not every week Hong Kong gets to see a band that's on the way up rather than past their peak. British indie outfit Yndi Halda - a post-rock, largely instrumental quintet - will be visiting as part of an East Asian tour that also takes in Taiwan and Japan.
Yndi Halda - 'enjoy eternal bliss' in Icelandic - are loved and loathed in equal measure by music critics and MySpace users. Their marathon songs, which average about 15 minutes and feature everything from the glockenspiel to double bass, violin and banjo, have been dismissed as torpid by some but hailed as genius by others.
Yndi Halda certainly promise one of the most interesting nights of the year. The band have been compared to Sigur Ros (one of last year's unlikely top Hong Kong gigs) and Arcade Fire. Their tingling, climax-filled, ambient musical journeys are a far cry from the three-minute pop songs that have fired many contemporaries to instant fame.
The debut album, recorded in a hilltop barn where the band rehearses, captures the raw freedom of their style, featuring four tracks that saunter melodiously along for an hour, punctuated by rising peaks. It's an instrumental attempt at an epic album.
Voted among the 100 bands to watch this year by Rock Sound magazine and with a sell-out debut show in London to their credit, Yndi Halda are worth checking out.