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www.planetnotion.com |
| Indie / Dancepop |
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 Matt and Kim’s second album, Grand, has been available in the US since January, and to be honest I’m amazed I hadn’t heard of these guys before I was handed the CD today. Reputedly brilliant fun to see live, it seems Brooklyn-based DIY duo Matt and Kim have built up a sizeable cult following in the US by touring relentlessly and preferring grimy warehouses and basements to clubs and bars, which is bound to make them popular with party crowds everywhere. They’re also notorious on the New York scene for encouraging crowd-surfing, and have caused a ripple of controversy by stripping off in Times Square for their latest music video. I realise as I listen that these guys have a good chance of being the next buzz-band; and by that, I mean that their album is almost certainly going to be overplayed in Topshops across the country and, let’s face it, will probably cause many a wince of irritation by this time next year.
But we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Full of upbeat zeal, this record is full of luminous synths and the kind of simple dancepop beats that make MGMT so nauseatingly popular. It’s genuinely uplifting stuff, with the charming simplicity (if not the depth or scope) of fellow New Yorkers TV on the Radio. The first single from the album, the much blog-hyped Lessons Learned, is more or less guaranteed to have you bouncing round your bedroom in a ‘thank fuck it’s summer’ glee dance, and tracks such as Daylight and Turn This Boat Around boast anthemic choruses and teeth-grindingly catchy hooks.
The nice touch about this album is that it was recorded in Matt Johnson’s parents’ house in the arse end of nowhere. He says of his Vermont home, ‘I had a friend in New York come up once and he was like, “How did you even find out about college?”’ It’s always good to know that musicians have feet of clay. Eleanor Rose
Grand is out on Artwerk Music, July 6th. |