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TRACK: Kiss With A Fist

WHO: 21-year-old Florence Welch – seemingly one part Kate Nash, one part angel of death.

WHAT: Apparently, “She makes the kind of music Lily or Kate would make if they'd grown up locked in a cage full of snakes in the basement of a Louisiana funeral home”.

THE HYPE: 'With a voice so hauntingly captivating you can feel it in your stomach, the skinny south Londoner and her trusted musical machine make some seriously beautiful noise.' Dazed & Confused

WE SAY: comparisons with the likes of Moshi Moshi label mate Kate Nash have a certain inevitability. Both are spunky women sardonically chronicling the everyday aspects of their lives, both are blessed with voices to die for - it’s just that in Florence’s case actual death doesn’t seem to be too far from her thoughts.

With a detached air that jars with her soulful, momentous voice, Florence’s world of fantasy realism allows her to shopping-list a string of connubial atrocities, with broken legs and smashed plates leading to a torched bed. ‘A kiss with a fist is better than none,’ she claims. Dunno whether Deidre’s Casebook would agree with that. The rest of her songbook has her mellifluously singing about gouging out a rival’s eye and deeds that would have the RSPB up in arms.

The frenetic, plugged-in skiffle backing provides a heightened edginess to the scenario, but is so rudimentary and stripped of any embellishment that it feels like her band are unable or refuses to shift attention from her, perhaps fearful of discovering whether it’s not just a play act after all.

This is dark, skewiff, punchy indie with a pantomime split lip.

IF I ONLY KNOW ONE THING: Florence clearly has friends in the right places - Lightspeed Champion’s Dev Hynes is a former collaborator, scenester DJs Queens Of Noize handle the management stuff, and she’s currently supporting MGMT on their European tour, and is sharing the bill with the mighty Sugar Hill Gang at Koko on May 24th.

WHERE CAN I GET IT: Kiss With A Fist is released on 9th June on Moshi Moshi.

FIND MORE: www.myspace.com/florenceandthemachinemusic

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