Little Boots vs. La roux

2009 heralds new steps for electro-indie, perhaps even further in progress from Nu Rave two or so years ago. This is an all out battle against the retro acts; The Wombats and Hooisers of this world, the dreadful offspring of a genre which has been done to death.

Leading this army into the sunset are the two lovely ladies of this years music movement are the likes of Little Boots and La Roux. Little Boots' hypnotic, almost epic sounding spacepop first made it on to the table last sumer, posting her jimjam videos on her youtube channel. The first I heard of her was September's mention of her in Mixmag's 'Introducing section.'

In interviews, she stated "I want to change people thinking that because it's a poppy thing that a record label's pressed a button on the giant songmaking computer and this popped out at the end."

Intereting! A few jumbled records became available and an iTunes EP was released. Her first REAL single, 'New in Town' is due for release this month.

La Roux had no such build up, and her wionderfully (if anything) shrill voice first penetrated my cranium after a single giveaway by the lovely NME! It was love. Much of her music is reminiscent of what I imagined would happen if Prince decided to swallow Depeche Mode.

Oh! And the hair! By Jesus, I've seen her live, and I really don't know how it manages to stay up!

However the Boots' sound is so deep, some tracks even resemble soundtracks from a children's fantrasy film, something very new sounding. She has something which La Roux lacks; track variation. Her sound ranges from deep club aimed sounds, the Hot Chip produced 'Stuck on Repeat', with a repettitive baseline that does exactly what it says on the tin, and Greg Kurstin produced 'New in Town' has a traditionally cheesy pop chorus, but her sound prevails and pulls it off perfectly.

Jowever, La Roux delivers a much more upbeat sound than Boots, energy which is perfectly presented for the dancefloor. Her album is full of those agonisingly catchy hooks that makes you want to hurt yourself when you're not listening to them. Despite thier similarities, the 'When Doves Cry'-esque 'In For the Kill' and 'Quicksand'. In 'Bulletproof' La Roux briefly dumps the high voice andseems almost angry . AND IT'S WONDERFUL.

You can't pit these two artist against each other. Yes, they're both birds with keyboards, but their sounds are so non-interchangable, it's not worth it.

Space Disco and Futurepop.