Blonde Redhead - Masculin Féminin box set

The Guardian 80

(Numero Group)

The early recordings of this trio, formed in New York in 1993 by Italian twins Amedeo and Simone Pace and Japanese singer Kazu Makino, are as cosmopolitan as you’d expect. They sucked up the literate post-grunge angst of Pavement – and how decadent that irony and self-regard sounds in the Trump era! – but, a little like Stereolab or The Sea and Cake, gave it a real shimmy by hinting at bossa nova amid the garage rock. The band’s first two albums are collected here, along with 19 extra tracks (including a KCRW session of crystalline poise), and their jazz sensibility means their songs can be loose to the point of slackness – but at every impetuous right turn, there’s another kick-ass riff, tom-tom flurry or singsong melody to tighten them back up again. Makino would become a more controlled vocalist on their 4AD records, but she’s at her best here, letting her voice break into squeaks that cleverly hover between sexual delight and pure exasperation.