Tune-yards Vs Nicole Scherzinger

tUnE-yArDs: Button Factory, Dublin Sun 7.30pm 18.50 01-6709202 Nicole Scherzinger: Waterfront Hall, Belfast Wed 8pm £35/£31 048-90334455; Olympia, Dublin Thurs 8pm 40.50/ 36.50 0818-719300

It’s a fine fix we’re in and no mistake: in the red corner we have tUnE-yArDs (aka Merrill Garbus), the Miranda July of beautifully odd pop music. In the blue corner we have former Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger.

Garbus is the type of performer who (sometimes) records herself on a handheld voice recorder and releases her work (sometimes) on recycled cassette tape. She also creates drum loops as she goes and enhances these with her voice (which lies a vague somewhere between Yoko Ono, Aretha Franklin and Björk) and her much-abused tenor ukulele.

Scherzinger, meanwhile, is the polar opposite: a pop star beloved by the populace at large, an X Factor staple (UK and US, although she’s been dropped from the US show) and one of those show-must-go-on types who were born to run and win.

It’s horses for courses, needless to say, but we’ll stick with the oddball here – Garbus wins by a TKO! (That’s a Ticket Knock-Out.)

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