Acute - The next big thing from Los Angeles?

A debut UK tour without the rest of his band is a daunting prospect, but Isaac Lekach is not showing any signs of worry about the short jaunt round our island with just him and his guitar. With the Acute debut album, Arms Around A Stranger, having just been well received in the US by those in the know it is no wonder he is a young man full of confidence but how will he cope without the rest of his band who have stayed behind in their hometown of Los Angeles.

“I’ve worked out how to play most of the tracks with just me and the guitar but I will have to throw in some newer material and a few covers,” Isaac admits to me as we sit in a swish Brighton bar on the eve of the tour, with the Halloween festivities going on outside and the deafeningly loud ‘dance’ music almost drowning out the increasingly jetlagged singer/ songwriter’s replies.

So, I ask him, what made him pick the rock’n’roll life? “It was all the Beatles and Beach Boys fault,” he explains, “when I was growing up my parents would listen to them and from a very young age I was gaining an education in music.” This young man isn’t just a retro-head however; he clearly has his finger on the pulse, name checking the likes of The National, St Vincent, Of Montreal and the Magnetic Fields during the course of our chat. Over here Isaac will be touring with former hardcore stalwart turned folky troubadour Jesse Malin, someone who has been “…real supportive…” of the band since their formation two years ago and a good friend to Isaac through what have been some pretty hard times.

The orchestral arrangements and baritone vocal styling of Isaac make the music on the album seem almost timeless and I am sure they will become classics of their time once people get to hear them. At times reminiscent of his childhood faves the Beach Boys, post-Pet Sounds, and Isaac admits that he wanted to call the album I Can Hear Music in homage to the great track on the vastly under-rated 20/20 album.

With the music becoming increasingly loud and Isaac feeling increasingly jetlagged I let him get off to his room to get some rest, knowing he will need it as he travels round our fair isle playing his wonderful music and no doubt gaining many plaudits on his way.


31st October 2007, Brighton.

myspace.com/acuteband

Written by Bradford Middleton.