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Look, we're not going to lie here, Babe's Aerialist Barbette was first played on Radio One by Huw Stephens back in November 2012. Not only that but it was recommended by yelping anti-melody activists Everything Everything. So it's not exactly 'new' new. But apparently this slightly tweaked version – premiered here – has been properly mastered and sonically spruced up, so that makes it all okay. Babe is the brainchild of Gerard Black (who, as you well know, is from François & the Atlas Mountains) and Michael Marshall, who used to make up one half of Glasgow-based electropop band, Findo Gask.
Taken from their forthcoming debut album, Volery Flighty, Aerialist Barbette – probably named in honour of high-wire performer Barbette, aka the brilliantly-named Vander Clyde Broadway – is a wonderfully strange conflation of Wild Beasts-esque falsetto, a fidgety musical backdrop of chiming guitars and delicate electronic textures, and, if you listen closely, some vocal help from former band member and Chvrches frontwoman, Lauren Mayberry.
Volery Flighty and is out on Moshi Moshi on 10th March. There's also a Kickstarter campaign to help raise money to create five short films to go with the album.
