This past Friday I caught Montreal Electro-Pop duo Milk & Bone perform at the Bootleg theater in Westlake. This particular show featured strong female electronic performances, with the lineup including solo performers Danke and Vox opening for Milk & Bone.
Danke opened the evening with a solo act featuring her own unique electro mixes similar to the effect of Purity Ring. Vox took the stage next with a mysterious entrance cloaked in all white with a veil which she removed after her first song. She sang ethereally over her electronic, piano, and acapella songs.
Milk & Bone donned all-black performance attire for their set. I was thrilled to hear the new music they had been working on, which provided similar sounds to their 6-track album, “Little Mourning.” Surprisingly, they got right to business and opened with their most popular song, “Coconut Water” first. Throughout the set, their voices dovetailed and harmonized with a beautiful softness and echoing resonance over the synth and rattling bass effects. Although their songs are catchy and lyrics are at times frivolous, it was clear that they precede pop music in many ways…their talent and humbleness give them a rather likable quality.
My favorite performances included “Easy to Read,” which introduced the ukulele to the set paired with droning synthesized bass lines in the background and equally powerful voices of the singers in harmony for the verse and unison for the chorus, enveloping into a powerful breakdown of massive sound, fading out with just the uke. It was beautifully done. I also rather enjoyed their final song of the evening, “New York,” which is written impeccably with pounding drum and sliding octaves and fifths in the bass, and softer interludes of keyboard and light harmonizing vocals singing the line, “I made love to another one…” just before the breakdown comes in with distorted bass and fading out with moaning Arabian desert-like voices (someone please let me know if there’s a better term for that :-).)
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Indiecation 