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Jun 11, 2009 Winter 2009 - Anticipated Albums of 2009 By Kyle Lemmon Photography by Derrick Santini

West Londoners Milo Cordell and Robbie Furze already have The Big Pink’s sound sorted out. “We want to sound like an apocalypse of love harps coming towards you,” Cordell stresses. “We want everything to be so emotional but so brutal at the same time. There’s noise, but we like to talk about pink noise. I want it to sound like a girlfriend that loves and hates you so much that they want to put a big pillow over your head.”

To put it simply, macabre romance pervades The Big Pink’s aesthetic. The bleeding heart romantics met “on the eve of the millennium at a house party where people drilled holes in their heads,” according to Cordell. “[The process is] called trepanation, and the ancient Mexicans and Native Americans used it to let out all the evil spirits in their brain and body. Basically, you’re constantly tripping. They did that at these really crazy parties. I think when I met Furze, he was hanging from the chandelier.”

The bizarre primeval practice could serve as a deliriously ideal music video for The Big Pink’s equally feverish “Velvet,” a possible future single.

After Cordell and Furze’s Bacchanalian revelry in the English countryside, the two split ways before regrouping several years down the line. Their deep-seated love for hardcore noise artists (Liars, Atari Teenage Riot, and Merzbow) and ’90s British rock melodies kept the seal of friendship airtight. Their first single, “Too Young to Love,” restates the adage that electronic music is the new punk. “Love” is a stark confessional over a Spacemen 3 soundscape, with colossal programmed beats bouncing off Furze’s My Bloody Valentine-like walls of guitar. Cordell’s lovesick lyrics are pronounced, even amongst the fuzz, and the track pummels the ears as much as the heart. Their song “Crystal Visions” is “a complete fantasy about living in a post-apocalyptic world,” Cordell says. “We come across a tribe of girls riding horseback who are painted gold. They kidnap us and we become a part of their world.”

During their recent tour with TV on the Radio, the hopelessly romantic duo puffed up with confidence after some kind words from Mani Mounfield of The Stone Roses. Cordell remembers them well: “He came up to me after the concert and just said, ‘One thing, mate—moody, fucking moody, and that’s a compliment,’ and walked off.”

The revered Manchester rocker might be on to something: It’s hard to ignore The Big Pink. Several auxiliary members deliver The Big Pink’s gloomy melodies on stage, and they plan to tour heavily this year. The extended group will have plenty of opportunities to hone their self-described “Armageddon love songs” after a South by Southwest appearance.

The Big Pink already has recorded 20 skeletal songs at home with Pro Tools, where Cordell’s vocals are inserted over a series of sampled and looped noisy jam sessions. Once it comes time to visit a studio, they hope to lay down tracks with moody king Alan Moulder (The Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine). The group’s pillows of noise will smother more ears soon, according to Furze. “We should release the album by this fall,” he predicts. (www.musicfromthebigpink.com)