COCO ROSIE
Noah’s Ark
Touch & Go
· Truth to tape.
When estranged sisters Bianca and Sierra Casady joined forces and recorded 2004’s La maison de mon rêve in a tiny apartment in Paris, they did so expecting no one would ever hear it. The resulting album was part time capsule, part leap forward — cartoon Disney birds singing Billie Holiday tunes over subtle hip hop beatboxing from en francais rapper Spleen. A year later, Coco Rosie remain one of the so-called freak-folk scene’s finest discoveries, touring and dueting with the likes of Antony & The Johnsons, Blonde Redhead and Devendra Banhart (to whom Bianca is currently engaged). Now that everyone’s watching, they’ve also gone ahead and done the bravest thing they could by staying entirely themselves.
Recorded under similar conditions as Maison (sounds created by an arsenal of toys, Spleen still in the background, music and vocals recorded just as often on antique Dictaphones as modern-day studio equipment), Noah’s Ark perfects the Coco Rosie approach to a song into well-worn formula. Alongside Antony’s Bryan Ferry-meets-Nina Simone falsetto on "Beautiful Boyz" and Devendra’s gypsy incantations under "Brazilian Sun," Noah’s Ark spotlights Bianca’s bizarrely gorgeous voice and cracked pure emotion.
The minimalist Southern-gospel swells of "Tekno Love Song" wrap around a melody so classic it’s a shock to learn it’s not already 100 years old. "Bisounours" spotlights Spleen’s honeyed flow, while "Armageddon" carries with it an eerie foretelling of American disaster — the sound of New Orleans’s soul under water.
Dedicated to the Casady sisters’ mother, a Cherokee teacher who taught them both the life of the road, Noah’s Ark is a near-perfect anomaly of a record – treading the heartbreaking depths towards the light along the way.
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