A Life Less Ordinary: CocoRosie

CocoRosie

Manchester Cathedral

7.05.10

CocoRosie require a patient, forgiving ear open to hearing, in one single track, tales about perfume, balloons, family detachments and death. Just which planet they spawn from is baffling, but it's freezing-hot one that manages to produce the sisters' music - four albums heavy, and set apart from the majority of Brooklyn's finest. They offer something both troubling and easing to listen to, with bizarre vocals layered atop the sounds of bicycle bells, concertinas, xylophones, supported by the very adult presence of both a grand piano and a harp.

With Bianca, it is peculiar toddler-like cries, perfect diction book-ending every word of every line; where Sierra's vocals are operatic, complete with full soprano range and volume control to match. She also demonstrates an uncanny impression of her sister's singing style. Both girls seem frozen in time as children, as they skip about the tiny stage in floor-length nightgowns from harp to toybox, casting an effortless spell over their audience within a beautiful, intimate sanctuary of a location.

It is with heavy hearts and wide eyes that the eclectic crowd of young/old/ male/female/transgender/gay/straight fans scuttle and push against one another in a hushed silence to see CocoRosie play a rare UK show in support of their latest record, Grey Oceans. And as if childish wails married with classical scales aren't bewildering enough, thrown in is one very skilled beatboxer, seen often on tour with the sisters.

Watching CocoRosie is terrifying and sad and funny; they make you feel oh-so-ordinary. They remind you of the simple thrill that singing nursery rhymes and riding merry-go-rounds and eating ice creams once gave you as a child, and contrastingly, of the bleak but hilarious inescapability of adult life. In theory, they are an act that should be dreadful; which goes to illustrate the ridiculousness of juxtaposing music, theory and the ever-impractical Cassidy sisters.

CocoRosie played:

God Has A Voice
RIP
Black Rainbow
Afterlife
Undertaker
Fatherhood
Happy Eyes
Moon Asked The Crow
K-Hole
By Your Side
Smokey Taboo
Hopscotch
Animals
Turn Me On
Lemonade
Grey Oceans
Fairy Paradise
--
Promise / Tranny Power

BY ALEXANDRA PEREIRA