My Toys Like Me at The Macbeth
March 27, 2009
Another month has flown by and it's time to head north of Hoxton Square again to
The Macbeth for the mighty Twisted Licks monthly residency. This months edition featuring the helium sluiced stylings of
My Toys Like Me.
It’s a strange week in London’s music world as many movers and shakers have hot footed it over to that Texas in order to swap buzz bands and 50oz
steaks with the great and good at SXSW. As such the crowd is a little
Spartan on arrival compared to normal, but by the time My Toys Like Me
take to the stage it’s getting hard to swing anything let alone
disgruntled felines.
My Toys
Like Me are an interesting proposition. The band takes to the stage in their original form, that of vocalist Frances Noon and producer Lazlo
Legezer, who started making music in 2005. They kick off with a
swirling version of the track Quiet Please, featuring the astoundingly
apt vocal line. “Quiet Please. I’m not listening all I can hear is the
crowd. “ Noon is one of the most unique vocalists to grace the stage in
a while. She has a striking, haunting vocal that ranges from Beth
Gibbons raspy whisper to shattering falsetto. There are elements of
Tricky, Bjork and Betty Boop scooped into the blender and the resultant
elixir is an intoxicating siren call that at first fascinates and later
hypnotizes the listener. Lazlo is content to hide away stage left
leaving Noon as the center of attention but he is busy behind his
laptop impersonating the Wizard behind the curtain, crafting pulsating
rhythms and quirk loops that perfectly offset and ground the vocal
acrobatics of his consort.
After the first 5 minutes the band are joined on stage by Charlie
Boud and Alfonso Pisaneli who complement the electro sound with a
rotation of live drums, guitar and bass. Fleshed out the band take on a
much more muscular aspect, mixing up funk and dance on numbers such as
‘Superpowers’ and the ecstatically good ‘Barnaby’ which really won’t
leave my head alone days later. They also waltz through a highly
tongue in cheek reworking of ‘Upside down’ by Diana Ross – hot!!
Lyrically
Noon brings you into an introspective, twisting world of urban
obsession, unrequited stalking, self aware dancefloor douches and
secrets, secrets, secrets. It’s a heady mix and in their brief set they
manage to cover a lot of ground. My Toys Like Me, mark the name, the
future should be theirs.