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Chicks On Speed '99 Cents'
Unlike a lot of US visitors to Berlin, the Chicks on Speed trio aren't still finding their way round with 'The Rough Guide to Arty Electro-Punk'.
Since inspiring Felix da Housecat's transformation from Chicago house DJ to electroclash figurehead, they've followed the 'perfect pop' signposts for their third LP. There are traces of where they've been in the rough and ready 'We Don't Play Guitars', but tracks like the breathy R'n'B of 'Coventry' scrape away their previous lo-fi scuzz to reveal pristine popstrels.
With their radio-friendly singalongs, girl-gang mentality and post-modern politics, you could almost call them Girls Aloud with degrees - indeed, Chicks were originally formed as a fake band at Munich Art Academy. The difference is that Girls Aloud's very existence makes the same points about parasitic record companies more effectively than the Situationist slogans of tracks like 'Sell-Out' ever could.
Chicks On Speed '99 Cents' (Chicks On Speed) Released October 20 2003.
This review originally appeared in X-Ray magazine.
Tagged as Chicks On Speed, archive
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