As Marmite musicians go, Kindness, AKA Peterborough-born pop dude Adam Bainbridge, divides people more than most. His two albums, 2012’s World, You Need a Change of Mind and last year’s Otherness, have been criticised for their almost scholarly homages to classic R&B, early disco, proto-house, acid jazz and go-go (the list goes on …). But his champions say these contribute to his complex style of modern pop, rehashing the building blocks started by producers such as Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis and Babyface into something quirky and new.
No matter where you stand, you can’t dispute Bainbridge’s ambition. It’s no coincidence that his headline London show is at the Electric Brixton, formerly the Fridge, the club where British R&B group Soul II Soul hosted their legendary nights in the early 90s. Their influence is all over Otherness. Recreating that vibe brilliantly, he’s joined by a 10-piece band – including, at one point, three drummers – and special guests crop up throughout the set, including frequent collaborator Dev Hynes (AKA Blood Orange), pop iconoclast Robyn, Gabriel Stebbing from Night Works and Brit School alumni Tawiah. The effect is more a carefully curated revue than a pop-star performance, though at times it means Bainbridge appears like a spectator, or reluctant participant, in his own songs. He lets his three more accomplished backing vocalists take centre stage, cowers awkwardly behind Hynes, or hides up at the back with a tambourine.
Still, it’s Friday and the crowd is up for it. There’s a warm sing-along to his best-known track, the cosy-like-a-radiator dance track House, although the set is mainly comprised of his newer R&B and soul material. This Is Not About Us, dominated by a cowbell hook recalling Massive Attack’s Unfinished Sympathy, is a groovesome highlight, though, by contrast the awkward and disjointed three-way ballad Why Don’t You Love Me with Tawiah and Hynes is a real groove-killer. Sax, meanwhile, is everywhere – cheesy and Baker Street-y in places but properly sexy in others, as on feathery, Casio-indebted R&B tune With You. There’s everything you want from an encore, too: rock soloing, a confetti drop and Robyn on vocals, resplendent in white, for the sweetly catchy Who Do You Love?
It is, perhaps, easy to dismiss what Kindness is trying to do as a pretentious genre workout, the equivalent of going record shopping with a friend who tells you what to buy every five minutes. But there’s genuine soul somewhere in there – he just needs to let it loose a bit more.
