MOMO
July 23, 2007
Bush Hall, London
by Joanna Orland
Momo is the brainchild of Toni Castells, a prominent member of the Royal College of Music circle. As writer and producer of Momo, Toni gathered top-notch musicians to accompany him on his debut album ‘Unharmed’. It was a great turnout for their debut live performance, which also featured live string arrangements by the spectacular Sacconi String Quartet.
As impressive as the musicians’ Cvs read (the girl who looks like a cross between Evanescence and Hayden Panettiere once represented Spain in Eurovision!?) the music and performance were a bit too self-indulgent. For example, what was up with Toni’s monologues throughout the set?
The strings were LOOOVELY. That Sacconi String Quartet is apparently the next big thing as far as classical string quartets go. The music itself had good intentions. There was one song in particular towards the end – the one without the beats – it was shockingly beautiful. On the other hand, most of the tracks were very samey and the beats were lacking originality as well as being dated. The guitar mix was oddly quiet and Toni could be heard strumming his guitar strings live on the guitar over the sound of the amp.
There is much potential of performing chillout music with the collaboration of strings and opera and pop singers. Toni nearly pulls it off, but could do with less indulgence and more practice on programming the beats.
