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Thenewno2, Dingwalls - review

Beatles offspring showcases his own trip-hop musical legacy

Rick Pearson

20 September 2012

Here comes the son, indeed. Dhani Harrison, the spitting image of father George, has recently released the best album by any of the Beatles’ musical offspring. Thefearofmissingout, from his equally unpunctuated band thenewno2 (pronounced: the new number two), is a superb collection of trip-hop-inspired rock songs.

If the world is yet to sit up and take notice — had you brought a cat with you to Dingwalls for the band’s first ever UK show, you’d have had ample room to swing it — then it’s surely only a matter of time. 

Harrison, who previously enjoyed a career as an aerodynamicist, looked immediately at home piloting his six-piece band. They began with Station — an amalgam of dance beats and rock instrumentation — following this with the ukulele-led Timezone. “It’s only me,” sang Harrison, sounding like a man completely unburdened by the baggage of being a Beatle’s son.

Behind him, his band veered effortlessly from prog rock to hip hop to blues — often within the same song. The spectre of Massive Attack loomed large on the quieter numbers, although thenewno2 can also rock out: an encore of So Vain threatened to take the roof off.

If the subtler aspects of the music were lost amid Dingwalls’ muddy acoustics (female backing singer Thorunn Antonio was rendered almost inaudible at times), the craft behind these songs was unmistakable.

And while Harrison Jnr favours synths to sitars, there were plenty of nods to the old man: the melodic guitar flourishes on The Number; the understated vocal delivery; the restless spirit of experimentation.

Mostly, though, this was a reminder that he’s first and foremost his own man ­— one capable of leaving a lasting legacy of his own.