As the ripples from March’s SXSW festival continue to throw bands to this side of the pond we carry on holding out our net in the hope of catching onto some exciting discoveries. Swimming into view (OK that’s enough water-based analogies – Ed) are this fresh trio from Brooklyn. 2010 is looking like it already belongs to this corner of New York, seeing as it’s pretty much single-handedly set about shaping it. Could that Borough’s buzz get any louder!? This latest band consist of two producers, Scott Rosenthal and Mark Richardson, fiddling with their knobs behind the vocal seductress that is Elizabeth Harper. It seems the current set up has very much evolved from the efforts of Elizabeth, who worked as a solo artist prior to this trinity. She continues to be the main creative element, writing the music and enjoying the front of stage. The slow-paced electro pop sound will remind you of the disco-ballgames that The Golden Filter punted around over the last couple of years and Goldfrapp before them. Thumping beats, handclaps and a whirlwind of synths are penetrated by the lush vocals, but it never gets too ostentatious, preferring to gently massage your neo cortex, rather than force it like some kind of buzzing vibrator to the brain. Their five track EP, Journal Of Ardency, was out in February on Terrible Records, (the label recently started up by Chris Taylor from Grizzly Bear), and it contains the astonishing hit, Careful What You Say (listed below). We also hand out the clunky, but still remarkable, Class Actress mashup that The Hood Internet created when they fused them with Dr Dre’s 1993 hit Nothin but a G Thang. Mashups aren’t normally something we get into, but this made us smile broadly, so we wanted to share it. Recently you may have seen Class Actress Stateside supporting the likes of Yeasayer, Little Boots and current Recommender favourites Phantogram. We will try and get them to play the UK at some point this year, once they reach the front of the Recommender’s lengthy, Brooklyn-dominated queue. (MB)
Find them here: Myspace
Hear them here: CLASS ACTRESS – CAREFUL WHAT YOU SAY
Hear them here: DR DRE vs CLASS ACTRESS – NUTHIN’ BUT A JOURNAL THANG
