Big Pink - ICA, London, 23/4/2009

  by Anthony Strutt

published: 18 / 4 / 2009

intro

At a gig at the London ICA to promote their forthcoming debut album, Anthony Strutt is impressed by 4AD's latest signing and rising stars of indie rock, the Big Pink

It is Thursday night, and the ICA in Pall Mall is packed for the latest hot band from London label, 4AD. Before they get on the stage, we get the XX, a band who look more like a gang than a band. They have an 80s air to them, which transfers into the delivery of the songs too. They remind me at different points of the best parts of Depeche Mode, Prefab Sprout, Everything But the Girl, Kristen Hersch and the Breeders. They are decent support for the headliners, the Big Pink, whom won best newcomers at the NME awards. On record they are Robbie Furze and Milo Cordell, but tonight they add an extra three members, of which one is a pretty girl vocalist, Jo Apps, who also records solo material for the electronic label, Planet Mu. The set they play tonight is very loud and lasts a mere 49 minutes with no encore. They pretty much play their forthcoming debut album, and open with 'Too Young to Love', their debut single, which is massive in sound and as noisy as the rest of the set. The music is both nugaze and trancey,while both Robbie and Jo's vocals have a Gothic element. 'Frisk' sounds like a rave version of the Cure or the Cocteau Twins, while on 'Doom Generation' Jo's vocal sounds a little like Bjork. On 'Crystal Visions' Robbie adopts a Black Rebel Motorcycle Club style vocal, and it ends up sound like a trippy Velvet Underground. 'Count Backwards' has walls of early Jesus and Mary Chain-style feedback. 'Stop the World'and 'At War with the Sun' both have a dance element, while 'Velvet', their second single, and their first for 4AD, is totally whipped up by the crowd. They end with the ultra-noisy and aggressive 'Dominoes'. A good solid band that will be huge in a mere few months.

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