The Cat Empire (Australia)

For over a decade now, The Cat Empire have carved themselves out a unique place in music – as a band with no guitars, with no easily definable style, and no corresponding haircut, but one that can step onto any stage, anywhere in the world and make the crowd dance. Over the years, they’ve been described via a series of slashes: jazz/reggae/funk/latin/gypsy/hip hop, this tag growing longer as time passed. When your whole musical concept is about transcending genre, and when a large portion of your performance is constructed out of pure improvised energy, it can be hard to know what to call the music being created. But now their music has grown out of its ‘multi-genre’ concept into something wilder, a spontaneous explosion of melody and rhythm that contains many flavours. This six-piece band from Melbourne’s music still can’t be described in a single word, but still delivers a feeling of beautiful chaos, of ancient ritual and glorious colour, all caught up in the magic of the beat. Let’s dance!