Watch: Nat Baldwin – Weights

Mr Baldwin seems to have a thing about basketball. Last week we streamed the track ‘Lifted’ and wrote about Nat Baldwin‘s new album People Changes, which is out on July 25 via Western Vinyl – the cover of which features Nat half dressed, clutching a basket ball, gazing out of the picture with ‘are-you-just-going-to-stand-there-or-are-you-going-to-play?’ eyes.

Well this week we have been directed to another opportunity to hear a People Changes track before the release – a video of track ‘Weights’, played live by Nat on a – you guessed it – basketball court. It’s obviously quite cold in this video though so Nat is wearing significantly more clothes to shoot some hoops. Shame.

In an impressive live performance, the combination of just Nat’s fluttering vocals and the stormy double-bass does not feel like a stripped-back version at all – instead the deep lows and breathy highs give the impression of a full sound, a tense tug-of-war between the top and bottom of the stave. It’s a fiercely emotive rendition, that seems to echo from the sparse urban landscape, reflecting back in jagged shapes. In this environment, it feels as much like street art, as musical performance. The prodigious instrumental talent he has displayed in his role with Dirty Projectors is much celebrated, but it’s clear in this very intimate performance, that his confidence as a solo musician too – both in composition and performance, is very strong. Whereas much of Dirty Projector’s output feels expansive, ‘Weights’, like last week’s ‘Lifted’ has a very keen sense of the personal and the introspective.