SOKO
- LIVE REVIEW - 29/12/08 OXFORD ART FACTORY, SYDNEY
From
a land famed for romance, champagne, the Moulin Rouge prostitutes and a rather
infamous piece of structural art, comes a voice perfumed with the sanctity of
the old city and tainted with the breath of the new of it. At a time where the
world's attention is focused on France's burgeoning dance scene (with good cause
of course), it comes at a wonder that anything else can be heard through the thick
resonance of synthesised bass lines that have laid claim to the countries musical
fame. But as many of France's dance music exports set sail for the party season
on our sunny shores, the cold and cloudy skies of Paris are contorting a new breed
of talent with an entirely different perspective. Tainted with old world French
romanticism and crammed with modern idiosyncrasies of love and fear, the quaint
acoustic sound of Soko brings a requisite French charm back to our ears. Proof
that French music today is much more than munted, glitzy beats.
The
musical cultivation of Stephanie Sokolinski that raised its tendrils during the
recording of a French film is part of this new breed. Better known as the menacingly
poetic Soko, her music has developed repour at a remarkable pace. At 22 years
of age, her lyrical patina has sold out concerts, become a myspace phenomenon,
pierced music charts and hearts the planet over - and all before she has had time
to release her first album.
Now, if you couldn't understand
what was actually being said in her songs, the sweet sound of her cherry blossom
vocals would leave you lost in blissful ignorance, completely unaware of the verbal
thorns lurking within the tenderised sound - a perfect deception. Yet beneath
those pretty petals lie some barbed lyrics that are capable of packing a perfect
puncture.
As mentioned, her voice is syrupy and light. Her
delicate crooning crowned with intrepid emotion and a stark innocence ripples
through her chords. But it is the lyrics that are the most captivating factor
of this music. Women adore her for her courage to make noise of those things that
are thought of, though they shouldn't have been thought of, and never laid to
rest in the ears of their others. Men are more simply captivated by the fascinating
insight she provides into the arcane mind of that mysterious other gender. Although
you would expect her shows to be lady dominated - both sexes turn out in equal
numbers for her performance - the chance of insight clearly too good to pass up
for the boys.
In concert, she appears as an angelic motif placed
centre stage in a dank underground music hall. Riding a titre of intense emotions
during the course of the show she halts from heaving melodic tantrums, child-like
sulking and idyllic lullabies to chat contentedly with the audience. Contained
in a dim installation of her own kitsch props (including her cherished cat night
lamp), she bounces with ease between her ukulele, drums, acoustic guitar, and
sky blue electric guitar, assisted by two fellow musicians in a setting that is
strikingly backyard band.
The intimacy of Sydney's Oxford Art
Factory accommodates the simplicity of the performance and her nurturing of the
audience. During the concert, Soko gives her doting buffers choices about what
they would like to hear, even though her fanciful options usually have a most
obvious answer. Soko gladly accepted requests as part of the interaction and it
was at this point that her rather pyre infamous song 'I'll Kill You' was performed.
This iniquitous little blossom has been watered with border-line tendencies and
features the lyrics 'She stole my future / She broke my dream / I'll kill her
and she's a bitch, you know / All she's got is blondeness' and serves as an assurance
of her audacity amongst numerous other things…
'In My
Wet Dreams' is another lyrically loose little bloom that does well describing
her looseness in an entirely different region. With lyrics like, 'you move faster
and faster / Just like a sex machine / And I scream louder and louder / I love
your dick', this song is bound to get a rise out of pretty much anyone. While
all of this may read a little crude on paper, the cutesy French accented vocals
veil it in a manner that make it sound appreciably touched with romance, even
if it is laced with utter porno lust. The French have always been true masters
at making the raunchy romantic, the slutty sumptuous and the mad aspiring. Soko
certainly has no trouble rising to those standards.
Soko: bringing
old world French charm to a decisively modern program. Album expected in mid Feb
of 09. Videos of performances available on myspace and youtube.
Jordan
Faires
