While attending the TimBRRR! Festival I was discussing bands with some friends and they mentioned this bizarre sounding band, CocoRosie, to which I just shrugged my shoulders and said I had never heard of before. Since then, in the last month I have not only checked them out, but have become completely enthralled (somewhat obsessed) by CocoRosie.
This band is made up of two beautiful and fascinating sisters who compose crazy interesting music with influences all-over-the-map with noticeable influences/sounds from: dream pop, hip hop, folk, electronic, tribal, gypsy, cabaret, and opera, all blended into addictive craziness. Some call their music “freak-folk”, which is a genre tag that I love. Say what you will about genres/tags, but I love that one: both the name and the music that falls under it.
I love their unique ‘sound’, bizarre antics, insane interviews, and their interesting music videos. I have been desperately trying to grasp what goes on inside their heads to produce the kind of music that they make, and to explain how they act, but the best explanation I can arrive at, is that their brains have been saturated in acid from an early age. Possibly they are legitimately "crazy", which is fine, or it is all an elaborate facade to drum up intrigue and publicity, in which case they are purely brilliant! Either way, its working.
Their Wikipedia page hints at some things that may have influenced them throughout their turbulent childhood. There is a short documentary on the freak-folk "movement", The Eternal Children, that features Cocorosie, Devendra Banhart, and Antony, which gives a brief look into their scene. (That documentary isn't that good, nor does it convince me that these few bands are really that related musically, but the Cocorosie parts are ok).
Their Wikipedia page hints at some things that may have influenced them throughout their turbulent childhood. There is a short documentary on the freak-folk "movement", The Eternal Children, that features Cocorosie, Devendra Banhart, and Antony, which gives a brief look into their scene. (That documentary isn't that good, nor does it convince me that these few bands are really that related musically, but the Cocorosie parts are ok).
Their songs range from hauntingly beautiful, to bizarrely intriguing, to crushingly depressing. The collage of sounds that they have cultivated to form their very unique musical style has a novelty that will no doubt keep you intrigued for quite some time. I know there is no escape for me.
Enjoy these two music videos: (both are likely NSFW)
