Futuristic Retro Champions / Dirty Summer @ Voodoo Rooms
With so many disparate elements, the wonder is that they make it all sound so understated.
Dirty Summer should bottle and sell precociousness; they certainly seem to have their own production line. The Dunfermline trio have musical ambition on a grand scale, welding it to showmanship and a polished live experience confounding their tender years. Visually, it's Kiddie Pops as directed by David Lynch, featuring Mark E. Smith, David Byrne and Marianne Faithful (gleefully fannying around on a kettle drum). As it happens, this turns out to be a delicious prospect, and the music (crazed synth keys, psycho bass, squealed lyrics) more than matches this dystopian vision. A ballsy bunch, they could be heirs to the Beta Band's mantle as Fife's kings of experimental noise. With a daintily affected opening number, performed from a crowded stage by six art schoolers, it looks for all the world like The Waltons Musical (soundtrack, copyright Belle and Sebastian) for Futuristic Retro Champions. But then the shouting starts, smiles crack open both onstage and in the crowd, and the vicious sense of humour underpinning the deliberate tweeness comes to the fore. With so many disparate elements, the wonder is that they make it all sound so understated. Gorgeous summer pop melodies, with a sub current of ominous electro-riffing and turbo beats…nice. [Paul Mitchell]