From almost five-thousand miles away, French musicians Tamagawa and Oldine offer Wichitans a solid glimpse of underground world music. 

Sainte-Etienne solo-artist Tamagawa’s latest release on Bandcamp, 2019’s live in Japan features copiously layered guitar delay, as chords echo and fall into each other for a soothing, ambient effect. Recorded in the Japanese metropolises of Tokyo and Kobe, the quiet tracks seem to fill in the empty spaces of the physical areas they reference, and the crowd noises quiet down to a non-presence. This is the kind of music you listen to quietly with your eyes closed. 

Le Cri De La Harpe labelmate and Parisian songwriter Oldine makes quirky, lo-fi D.I.Y. tracks, mixing elements of folk and electronic music for intimate and playful soundscapes. The song “nhel sheitan” from the EP “télégraphe” is a great example of Oldine’s deceptively conventional guitar-based songwriting, which builds with the addition of crackling synths and fading away with a bouncing, shaker and bongo combo rhythm. The sprawling, eight-minute-long “ella carne” uses mouth clicks, screeching guitars and whooshing air noises, which all collapse into a droning synth outro. 

Singer-songwriter Justin Holt hails closer to Wichita, Birmingham, Alabama, and rounds out the night with his classic southern country crooning and story-telling style songwriting. His 2019 single “Good Looking Waste of Time,” makes use of chunky guitar riffs and a simple but hard-hitting rhythm section to support Holt’s powerful, traditional vocal style. 

With three distinct genres packed in one bill, Kirby’s Beer Store continues its decades-long tradition of ambitious and weird line-ups.