Pixel Fix announced as support for The Sunshine Underground
We're pleased to announce that Oxford bright young things Pixel Fix have been added as support for The Sunshine Underground's upcoming gig here. Although this band have one foot firmly in the indie camp, you might be surprised at their forward thinking sound, razor sharp melodies and contemporary production, so make sure you get there early. For a taster of what to expect, check out this feature from The Guardian, along with latest single 'Lungs'.
When is an indie band not an indie band? When there are four of them, the lineup including a guitarist, a bassist, and a drummer, and yet they make a sound like this Oxford four-piece, who appear to have spent the last few years listening to the same kind of glitchy R&B and witchy laptop pop as us. This sort of lovely, darkly dreamy slow soul, covered in clicks and cuts, is normally the preserve of solo solipsists operating mysteriously and anonymously from bedrooms across North America, not Home Counties boys with one eye on the gig circuit. In fact, just about the only clue that Pixel Fix aren't Los Angelinos or Torontonians is the singer's accent, his tone instantly placing him geographically as a son of the south of England, making this a peculiarly local take on the new indie R&B: Estuary & B, or something.
There was another band who we wrote about a couple of years ago called Seasfire, from Bristol, who essayed a similar sort of groovewave or chillsoul, although they appeared to become increasingly ill-at-ease performing their sepulchral, sorrowful music onstage because by the final time that we caught them they were reduced to rocking out. Then again, the same thing happens when the Weeknd plays live: the temptation to pump up the volume and drown out the detailed richness of the sound with power chords and pummelling drums is hard to resist. We didn't see Pixel Fix in 2013 supporting the 1975, Crystal Fighters, Little Comets or Jaws, but we can only imagine they had a similar dilemma.
How to remain true to your original idea - to use space and silence as virtual fifth and sixth instruments in a bid to pare down R&B to its stark essentials - when you're vying for airtime with the usual indie guitar bands on what are probably your natural homes, 6 Music and xfm? That is the question. Still, while we wait for Pixel Fix to answer, they're making some quite stunning music, as long as you can get over the vocals, which are more earthbound than the luscious, liquid sonics probably deserve, mooring them in the here and now rather than the vague out-there. There are two EPs available: the self-titled one from last year, which is well worth tracking down and features Lake, a slight detour from their norm, sounding like early Prefab Sprout with the Edge on guitar, and the new Fall EP, which evinces an increased facility with pop hooks: the title track is more yacht rock than indie rock. Nice to hear young musicians thinking intelligently and progressively about structure and arrangements, and there is a suitably Weeknd-ish air of decadence throughout, of the hedonist's handbook being consumed, including the cover. As with Seasfire, there is the sense of a band trying to have their cake (souly atmospherica) and eat it, too (rocky anthemia). Time will tell if they succeed, or whether they end up succumbing to the demands of the indie milieu.
By Paul Lester, The Guardian
