'New To Q', it says everywhere. But the two headlining acts on
tonight's roster at Notting Hill's Tabernacle venue both have a
history. Miike Snow's is of their own making, but I Blame Coco has no
one to blame but her parents.
So does Coco Sumner have a good chance of shrugging off the
shackles of being the product of the loins of Sting and Trudi Styler? Well,
she's one of perhaps a dozen major label-signed solo girls snapping at
the heels of Little Boots and Florence Welch who, in turn,
were chasing after Lily Allen and Bat For Lashes. They
now seem like old-timers, having successfully released two whole
albums. But Coco (real name Eliot) is in with a chance.
She's found herself a niche with her songs sprung with more
youthful swagger than her competitors and in person she backs it up
with an effortlessly cool stage presence. Swedish superstar
Robyn's presence on the storming hit-in-the-making Caesar can't
be replicated by drafting in an out of place Plan B tonight,
but the energy and production of the song is still the highlight in a
set of otherwise average to good tunes.
Miike Snow have no such shackles. Their history resides in the
success of the Bloodshy & Avant part of their make-up, the Swedish
mega-selling production team most commonly cited as being responsible
for Britney Spears' Toxic.
With the band completed by American singer Andrew Wyatt, last year's
self-titled debut album was rewarded with a fair amount of acclaim and
singles Black And Blue and Animal received decent airplay, but it didn't
translate to record sales. Perhaps that's why they're still 'New To
Q'.
They've claimed that they never intended Miike Snow to become
popular, and now that they've found themselves touring, on stage their
numbers have doubled to six. This means that tonight
there are a bewildering number of keyboards and gizmos
spread about, making it impossible to figure which sounds are coming
from where.
Theirs is intelligent pop music grounded in electronic beats, and
as such the band hasn't quite solved how best to switch between upbeat
songs you can dance to and ballads you can't. Long intros and outros
on too many songs mean the set doesn't flow and the audience never
quite gets into a rhythm. It takes a while to get anyone dancing, and
when they do it doesn't last.
Naturally, the singles go down well with Wyatt's falsetto
impressing on Black And Blue. Sipping a cup of tea between songs,
he struggles with volume on his microphone. Silvia also impresses, but
on slower number Sans Soleil, interest wanes and people start to
leave. It's a shame, as the set ends well with Animal standing out as
Coco returns to the stage and Remedy brings things to a close.
Miike Snow have the songs and the quality. But if they want their
live show to succeed they'll need to find a way to manipulate their
crowd more effectively.
INTERVIEW:
