大象传媒

Clutching his ukulele Mr Rabbits comes across as a more confused Norman Wisdom. It could be performance art as he stumbles through awkwardly comedic stage banter, or it could just be stumbling, only Rabbits knows. As he moves to guitar he relaxes, but the audience are mainly unengaged, chatting amongst themselves. With his set drawing to a close, he pulls a sca-ba-dee-ba-doo jazz number out of the bag that shows more skill than the rest of his set put together. He then departs, as much of an enigma - if not more - than he was when he first came onstage.

It takes a certain kind of person to start singing acapella in a packed White's Tavern. It shows either bravery or a complete lack of self-consciouness and ego. With a Transatlantic depth to her voice, Katharine Philippa sings what can only be described as soft gospel, layering vocals using a loop pedal and creating drums by simply tapping the microphone. Nothing clashes, all fitting together to create an easy listening experience. Originally from Portadown she speaks to the audience with a quiet simplicity, never trying to be dramatic, simply doing what she does and approaching it like a musician rather than a performer. Serious girls with pianos will always welcome Tori Amos comparisons and there is a little of that here, combined with Eva Cassidy at her most soulful vocally. In fact it's baffling that part of the audience steadily become more raucous, the back of the room seemingly completely removed from the quiet musical moments taking place at the front.

Always prolific, Rachel Austin brought everyone here this evening to celebrate the release of her latest EP: Age Of Love. Having lived in Belfast for roughly seven years, not a blog or review neglects to mention that she was born and raised in Virginia. After all this time in NI is this still relevant? Absolutely. In this world of faux-Americana here we have the real deal. No fake accents, no fake tales.

Singing with her eyes closed we're reminded of the similarly Appalachian stylings of Joanna Newsom with the vocal experimentation of Regina Spektor. She sails between the valleys and peaks of her range easily, a quavering vulnerability to her voice. Songs range from obvious love songs to delicate charming lullabies - never cutesy but knowingly feminine - to the intellectual, songs like 'Control' being created with a loop pedal right before us.

Unlike Katharine it's not all pretty noises. Sounds clash and words jar, the unpalatable being set against the traditional. The experimental nature of the songs on show here puts Rachel at the very periphery of our understanding of what 'female singer-songwriter' material is, almost uncomfortably freeform until the other layers are added to make it almost linear. A minor key cover of 'What A Wonderful World' puts this all completely in perspective: it's like seeing the negative instead of a photograph, viewing the bare untrimmed seams of a song instead of the 'front'. This is what Rachel does throughout her set, challenging our notions of structure and melody and showing the fluidity of the formula.

A successful sold-out EP launch then, the only real strain being felt by the speakers having to contend with an at times aggressively loud audience. If you're louder than the person with the microphone, you should probably quieten down.

Elizabeth McGeown