Digital, 9th October 2009
The word ‘potential’ in a music review is just as cliched as ‘substantial’ in a food write-up. Sometimes though, there’s no better word to fit the description and the cliche can be of a good variety. Like a good pie will arguably taste ‘substantial’, a good new bands ‘potential’ has to be taken into account – especially when it’s all about promotion now –Â and it’s exciting when there’s bags of it, as per the case of The Big Pink.
At the top of 2009, The Big Pink won the NME Philip Hall Radar Act for best new act, perfect for the rock scuttlebutt stakes. They played in May at The Great Escape to big acclaim from fans and press alike. It seemed that shows like these would springboard the band onto the next level. The sense of potential was strong to say the least. However, as is typical of weekly rag endorsements and industry music events, bands appear as fast as lightning but are in danger of getting struck down just as easily. In 2009 The Big Pink appeared thick and fast and then fickle attention spans diverted elsewhere as a plethora of bands unjustly stole their thunder. Hi Hockey.
So the hype quietened over summer and the London based Robbie Furze and Milo Cordell were able to go about their business and drop debut LP ‘A Brief History of Love’ in mid September. Their live performance remains as palpitating as ever, the sound so crisp tonight at Digital and the crowd love being drenched in strobe. To dub The Big Pink shoegaze is to stay inside the box; this act stay outside that malarkey. Sure, they take the washed-up feedback of A Place to Bury Strangers, but they also apply the pop craft of M83, high-fiving the 80’s in the process, complete with drum machines and songs about love. It’s a brief but nectarous performance tonight and the stand-out is undoubtedly ‘Velvet’ which set up this original idea of potential. Maybe the ideas of layered gaze and plasticity of pop jarred a little in the promotion stages of The Big Pink, but on this outing it works as well as pie and mash together and they should have nothing to worry about for a while.
Words by Marcus Walsh
Photography by Emmest
myspace.com/musicfromthebigpink
