Marie-Helene Delorme aka Foxtrott shot to the limelight back in 2012 when she released her debut single, Shields. Before then the artist was off stage offering beats and remixing tracks for local talent in Canada. The Canadian born is rather spectacularly, a self-thought singer, songwriter and producer.
Delorme herself comes hailing from the French side of Montreal in Canada and tours with two other musicians, one other from Montreal but from the English side, who plays drums and a French horn player from Iceland. I thought the combination was rather spectacular when I saw the trio play at The Great Escape festival last week and when I heard the band was playing in London this week I simply had to go and see them again. Foxtrott played at The Queen of Hoxton Wednesday night as part of Pop Montreal and this is how it went down.
Queen of Hoxton is a popular venue and it was nice to see Foxtrott play a full set after The Great Escape festival. I was delighted to feel the same way I did when I saw the trio perform at TGE, mainly impressed and interested. Delorme is a captivating front woman as my friend put it ‘she is cool as f***’ and completely sucks you into her world of beautiful beats and unexpected sounds. The main event was Foxtrott’s music, which is a mix of electro-pop topped with enigmatic lyrics. The combination works, so much so that everyone at Queen of Hoxton was dancing and loving it.
The band accompanying Delorme deserves a mention, the drummer makes eclectic, offbeat drum patterns look easy and straightforward and the French horn, well it’s a FRENCH HORN, who doesn’t like that? And no it didn’t look pretentious it was just perfect!
Highlights of the night included a powerful performance of Brother. The song, which is mellow struck a chord and could have been a gamble considering how upbeat most of the songs were but it worked and added contrast to the set. Shields was another favourite of mine with its catchy chorus and melodic beat. To me all the tracks though are ridiculously catchy.
Foxtrott did a great job on Wednesday night and I loved every moment of it. I can’t recommend this act enough and think that bright things are ahead for this act.
set list: 1.Polenta 2. Shaky hand 3. Colors 4. Mountains Rose High 5. Shields 6. Rainy Mardi 7. Patience 8.Meandrums 9.Untake me 10. Brother 11. Gated 12. Driven  13. Heads Under Water Beyond Our Means
