Live, Charlotte Gainsbourg is every bit as seductive as her father

30 March 2018, 18:57 | Written by Adam Elmahdi

(Live)

(Charlotte Gainsbourg)

Crouched behind an electric piano and fenced in between a ring of strobing neon frames, one gets the impression Charlotte Gainsbourg has not quite inherited her father's love of the limelight. She speaks little, except to honour her late sister, and whilst the monochrome lighting illuminates her band, she mostly remains wreathed in shadow. But whilst she might be a reticent performer, last night's show at London's Village Underground confirmed that as a musician and songwriter she's every bit as seductive as Papa Serge.

As expected from her first London show in over half a decade, the converted fin-de-siecle warehouse was packed to the rafters, drawing fans from as far afield as Hong Kong. Focusing primarily on the glistening synth-funk and densely layered dream-pop of latest release "Rest", the hushed Gallic delicacy of "Ms". Gainsbourg's vocals proved an enchanting counterpoint to her more muscular melodies, particularly during an inexorably intense "Deadly Valentine" which saw her venture from her keyboard to nonchalantly stroll across the front of the stage.

The hypnotic 75-minute set closed with an ethereal cover of "Runaway", Kanye's paean to douchebags, arseholes and scumbags, and her father's impossibly catchy if "problematique" 1984 earworm "Lemon Incest" (which sounds like a GoT-themed dessert, yet is somehow even more unsettling). If she had played for two more hours, one suspcts no-one present would have minded.