Chew Lips

Attack of the drones

The London electro-pop trio have moved on massively from their first kitchen sink gig at a friend’s house in the spring of 2008, to being among the first slew of bands announced for next year’s SXSW festival. The band have been among the ‘ones to watch’ lists for some time. However, the limelight that shone on the majority of solo female electro acts (La Roux, Little Boots) in 2009 is set to radiate their way in 2010.

The band – which describes their sound as “8-bit Casio drone-disco” –  has performed as part of the Levis One’s To Watch platform, Gaymers Camden Crawl, and toured with The Virgins. In addition they have run the full gamut of the festival circuit over the summer – a far cry from their live debut gig, singing astride a washing machine.

Tigs, who provides vocals, straddles a line somewhere between the looks of Katie White (vocalist and guitarist for the Ting Tings) and Scarlett Johansson, with a vocal sound reminiscent of Karen O from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. The two Casio tone knob twiddlers in the background are Will and James; who appear only too happy to take a back seat from the energetic antics of their lead singer. Despite some possibly misplaced comparisons, Crystal Castles they are not, with the staccato 8-bit opening for ‘Solo’ serving up a far more commercially accessible sound than ‘Air Wave’ ever could. Another release, ‘Salt Air’, with its ‘You’ve been drinking” captivating drawl from Tigs, overlaid onto  an 8-bit surge and subtle tapping wood block, is evocative of their simplistic, yet poignant, sound.

Their first video, for the single Solo – on the French label Kitsune – saw them having a tea party in the snow at an abandoned communist theme park in Berlin.

Visit their MySpace site to download the second track ‘Slick’  from their forthcoming debut album, which has being lovingly crafted by Bat for Lashes producer David Kosten. Tigs recently described it in an interview as  “a body of work [that is] going to differentiate us from a lot of the people we’ve been unfairly compared to – it’s future classic pop.”

Chew Lips are playing live across the UK from 19th Nov to 2^nd Dec, for full details visit their website here.