Tigercats

In 2010 the East London indie outfit Tigercats coalesced around singer, songwriter and guitarist Duncan Barrett, who enlisted his brother Giles on bass, Jonny Evans on drums and Laura Kovic on vocals and keyboards. Drawing from classic U.K. pop forebears such as Orange Juice, Belle and Sebastian and Hefner, the quartet placed two early singles with the modest British imprints Haircut Records and WeePop before unveiling their debut long-player, Isle of Dogs, in 2012. A combination of tender, bittersweet melodies and eccentric, distorted indie textures soon drew the interest of the established Fortuna label, which brought the band aboard in 2014.

Augmented to a quintet by guitarist Paul Rains, already connected to Fortuna through his work with Allo Darlin’, Tigercats delivered their second album, Mysteries, in the opening months of 2015. After an extended stretch of touring that included appearances at several European festivals, the musicians returned to East London to begin work on a third record. Prompted by the rapid redevelopment reshaping their neighborhood, frontman Duncan Barrett set aside his guitar in favor of an electric kalimba fed through his pedal board, thereby altering the group’s sonic character.

Blending Afrobeat, desert psych and tropical pop, the resulting Pig City appeared at the start of 2018 on El Segell del Primavera, the Barcelona festival’s affiliated imprint.