TLOBF Loves… Cats In Paris

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Cats In Paris are named after a scene from a dream in which a giant cat with paws the size of dump trucks scales the Eiffel Tower like a feline King Kong, swiping away helicopters like flies as it’s huge claws lock over the girders… imagine it, this monstrous beast, with a purr that feels like an earthquake, tectonic blinking lids sliding over it’s vast green eyes, and that sinister cat smile that says “I’m going to eat you, sure – but I’m gonna play with you first”.

The only thing nearly as frightening in the music of Cats In Paris is the similarly vivid level of imagination at play. They meld together a seemingly endless series of sonic textures – sweeping strings with chimes and glockenspiel, synth and recorder, chugging bass and acrobatic percussion, sweet instrumental breakdowns and ragged shoutalongs – into beautifully complex and wonky indie-pop anthems.

Their influences are equally catholic – there are half-glimpses of everything from Faith No More to Final Fantasy, Bearsuit to Xiu Xiu, Grandaddy to Tortoise. They sound like a band that have been exploring the sprawling galapagos of the last few decades’ left-field and avant-garde indie music, eventually landing on an undiscovered musical island all of their own.

Live, the level of musicianship on display is dizzying. Every member of the band trots out their parts with ease that belies the complexity of the writing. Most impressive of all is the multi-instrumental tightrope act of frontman Michael J. Watson, who skips dextrously between looped violin, vocals and keyboards. His wünderkind aura is accentuated by his affectedly childlike mannerisms and stage persona. This is where my only faint reservation lies – the band’s live presentation toes the line of mawkishness at times, allowing them to be too-easily pigeonholed as unwitting exponents the overpopulated indie twee-core scene. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but Cats’ music has a maturity and a slippery refusal to be pinned down that’s they would do well to preserve.

The creative strength in Cats In Paris gives them that rare capability to genuinely surprise, through a healthy disregard for doing what’s expected. Whether in a sharp mid-song change of direction or the introduction of a new sound that seems to arrive out of the blue, it’s a liberating experience to literally not know what’s going to come next. Their debut single ‘Foxes’ is a mini-epic that illustrates this perfectly, and it’s soon to be released on 7″ by Manchester’s excellent Akoustik Anarkhy label.

Links
Cats In Paris [myspace]