The Big Pink – Mercury Lounge, New York City, USA – 15/6/09
4/5
By: Matt Cole
You’ve got to f**king hate industry showcases. Seriously. Rather than a rabble of hungry fans gunning to get sweaty and ecstatic, you’re landed with a bunch of studiously cynical hacks vying to be the first to decry the whole enterprise as sh*t sandwich.
Despite the resulting morgue-like atmosphere of The Big Pink’s first show in the US, the Brits rocked it with heaps of class and undeniable skill.
Admittedly though, founder members Robbie Furze & Milo Cordell had some big guns backing them up including Patrick Wolf’s enigmatically gorgeous sister Jo Apps supplying angelic backing howls and hair flinging.
But there was no cheating going on here. Where-as other purveyors of futuristic Digital Hardcore would have drowned their vocals and muzzied the guitar work in big, pillowy wafts of fuzz, The Big Pink used crystal clarity as a sonic weapon. Engineer Al O’Connell gave them nowhere to hide and the result was powerful and hypnotic.
There’s something important about The Big Pink, they do what they do with such intensity yet there’s still fun to be had, with tunes such as ‘Too Young To Di’e riding on some seriously Chemical drum loops and dropping wave upon wave of euphoric synth effects.
I want to see the The Big Pink play to an audience of living, breathing real people next time. I’d imagine they’re revelatory rather than just very, very good.
Artists in this article: The Big Pink
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