It’s hard to define Coloureds. To anyone who has seen the Oxford electro duo before, you will be able to understand how fitting their name truly is. To anyone who hasn’t, I strongly suggest you do. I first watched the pair at Modern Art Oxford’s Basement Sessions in February, alongside the local act Robots with Souls and Londoners Public Service Broadcasting. I arrived not knowing what to expect, relying on the advice of an inarticulate friend who described them as “a coherent series of bleeps and bloops to a four to the floor dance beat, and some cool kid’s synths”. A good starting point I suppose; however, this disjointed report doesn’t quite seem to encapsulate the raw energy that they exert in their surprisingly wild performances. Many familiar faces showed up, including Graeme Murray, ex-Youthmovies drummer, who made a stunning guest appearance, donning one of the trademark coloured masks that gives the group their name. I anticipated a tame set, with a bit of head-bobbing and foot-tapping from the avant-garde indie types in the gallery; within about two minutes of the fierce laptop trickery, it felt like I’d lost half my body weight from the violent shapes I was cutting, and I couldn’t feel my feet from the excessive dancing. They were unbelievable.
As I arrived home, I immediately searched online for them. I was in luck. The pair have a small but rich catalogue; their latest release at the time ‘Tom Hanks’ proved instantly listenable, its jagged and jittery fragments of keyboard matched with short, incomprehensible vocal snatches, almost calmed by the consistent and unfaltering beat. I say ‘calmed’ – I mean ‘made approachable’. This was Crystal Castles without the shouting and with more hallucinogenics; Autechre with more fun. This was music intended for mad youths with a dance compulsion. And luckily for us, this wasn’t their final release.
New EP ‘Elastic’, recently released, follows in the footsteps of previous tracks – but the lack of variation isn’t much of a problem. The eponymous title track continues with the bitty synth parts and repetitive drum lines, yet has a less ecstatic vibe to it. The sound is slick and perky, yet first track ‘Coder’ really steals the limelight here. The disjointed and excitable bassline, and indistinguishable melody, works more than adequately for its purpose – however, the repetition begins to wear after about six minutes into the EP, and it all begins to sound a bit similar. In a club, in any venue, no-one would bat an eyelid at this observation. Yet it’s nice to have a little variation when listening, and their disco-skit just doesn’t seem to progress anywhere, remaining simply a crowd-pleaser. Other remixes on the 6-track EP add more depth to the collection, but offer little variation from what is expected. Polinski, Thomas Lehman and SSHH! The Deaf Have Aids all feature, remixing the three originals into electro-frenzy dancefloor gems.
‘Elastic’ definitely has its strengths – its undeniable approachability and the pure energy that it boasts is extremely impressive – and live, the duo’s ecstatic noise is incredible. That’s the reason Coloureds work: though we may not hear another dimension to their style right now, we don’t need to. Their raw energy and enthusiasm alone propels the duo into far higher estimation than most synth-playing, mask-wearing laptop prodigies. Coloureds have a talent that ‘Elastic’ doesn’t seem to fully justify; if you intend on listening to this pair, it’s required that you see them live. If you don’t do so for the stunning performance, do it for the pure dedication that they show: I really can’t imagine coloured rubber masks are all that fun to wear for half an hour when you’re going absolutely mad.
Buy ‘Elastic’ EP through the Coloureds website.