It's Thursday night at the Lexington Arms - a scrubbed up old boozer currently hosting some of the best gigs in North London (not to mention an excellent selection of American bourbon whiskies) and FUNSIZE LIONS' singer China Carolina has just taken the stage to initiate the serious business of the night: making paper airplanes.
Carolina lazily drops to the floor in front of the centre mike, sitting out the first song, and indulges in a spot of indie-club origami (surely a contender activity for the 2012 Olympic Games?) while her band mates take on vocal duties. It's an opening gambit that pays off when you're first on the bill and has the crowd scrambling to the floor to play with the planes. A little slice of schoolyard joy for a rainy Thursday night in London.
And joyfulness abounds with Funsize Lions, who seem to be channeling the spirits of souls no lesser than The Cramps, David Gedge and Magenta DeVine in some sort of weird mashup. But, y'know, electro...
Their sound tends to shun the textbook electro-pop with more playful sensibilities. They're certainly more accessible than some doing the rounds at the moment – I’m thinking of Crystal Castles - and Funsize Lions don't overdo the 8-bit edge, owing more to the likes of Devo, which scores points in my (e)book.
Like all perfect pop, the songs are at once essential and disposable. Imagine a grown-up Bis (something Bis themselves never seemed to achieve with any degree of decorum or quality) without the annoying squeaks of singer Manda Rin and a less frenetic rhythm section.
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Charmingly dressed, with a studied debt to 1950’s housewives, singer Carolina can switch effortlessly from an emotive husk to blank vocoderyness at the (literal) flick of a switch. At times the band is a little too disconnected from the audience and there’s something of coldness but the songs bring it all together in the end.
Anyway, I'm a sucker for a drum machine and a Moog - and Funsize Lions are heavy on the synthetics and sequences. 'Kodak Berlin' (doesn't the title just ooze left-bank cool?) mixes twee with a slow dirgey sequencer roll and some lovely scaled beeps but it's 'Modem Love' that hints at something more. I'm guessing it's a sly crack at internet addiction/macbook worship with the refrain, "Don't even know if you're a boy or a girl" and the song purs along with the humour and novelty characteristic of a everything your three minute electro-pop opus should be. It’s a rough diamond, showcasing where these guys might be heading next should we wish to follow.
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