Limbo@The Voodoo Rooms, Edinburgh
Thursday January 15th 2009
Just when you think you’ve got this Glasgow four-piece nailed as an abrasively angular, art-school by numbers outfit, the pixie-booted minx bippetty-boppettying about onstage opens her cheeky gob and takes you by surprise. Because the sound emanating from the knowingly named Stina Twee sounds like the spirit of long lost indie pin-up Harriet Wheeler of The Sundays distilled through a post Penetration Pauline Murray and gifted melodies by Morrissey that drive and soar off somewhere out of the ordinary.
Musically, Boycotts provide a relentlessly taut back-drop to such bittersweet colouring, with bass notes zapping out from the perfectly sculpted guitar patterns in a manner that recalls the post-punk structures of Life Without Buildings. Here, though, Ms Twee is less free-form, more traditionally straight-ahead in vocal stylings which rise and fall across the tunes’ more urgent intentions. At their most accomplished, such a counterpoint makes for a healthy creative tension that should be pushed further. It’s early days yet for Boycotts, but even now it’s clear the game they’re playing is a whole lot livelier than cricket. Just say yes.
The List, February 2009
ends
Thursday January 15th 2009
Just when you think you’ve got this Glasgow four-piece nailed as an abrasively angular, art-school by numbers outfit, the pixie-booted minx bippetty-boppettying about onstage opens her cheeky gob and takes you by surprise. Because the sound emanating from the knowingly named Stina Twee sounds like the spirit of long lost indie pin-up Harriet Wheeler of The Sundays distilled through a post Penetration Pauline Murray and gifted melodies by Morrissey that drive and soar off somewhere out of the ordinary.
Musically, Boycotts provide a relentlessly taut back-drop to such bittersweet colouring, with bass notes zapping out from the perfectly sculpted guitar patterns in a manner that recalls the post-punk structures of Life Without Buildings. Here, though, Ms Twee is less free-form, more traditionally straight-ahead in vocal stylings which rise and fall across the tunes’ more urgent intentions. At their most accomplished, such a counterpoint makes for a healthy creative tension that should be pushed further. It’s early days yet for Boycotts, but even now it’s clear the game they’re playing is a whole lot livelier than cricket. Just say yes.
The List, February 2009
ends
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