Black Kids are the antidote to a music industry gone mad. No one buys records anymore, people can watch shows on their phones and bands are being signed straight off a single MySpace MP3. All this leads to a lot of hot air and, often, zero substance. For once though the machine has spat out a band that actually deliver on the always-close-to-bursting hype bubble. Jingles, jangles, melodies, and bits to dance to, Black Kids are indie done right.
It’s difficult to pull off being lots of different things at once without sounding like a confused mess. Luckily Friendly Fires somehow manage to effortlessly jump between disco, party-starting synth-electro and punk-funk while navigating the desolate post-New Rave wilderness in a style that is very much their own. Sweaty, unpredictable live shows and tales of girls spontaneously combusting at their feet all add to the expectation surrounding what will be one of the debut records of the year.
What’s in the water down in Southend? Do they feed their kids amazing record collection pies and incredible clothes burgers or something? The Horrors, These New Puritans and now Ipso Facto have all come from the place with the pier by the sea and bought something that is new and exciting with them. These four girls play haunted, angular, post-punk indebted songs that leave you in a trance.
