His Girl Friday - New Waves @ Breaking More Waves

So, if we told you about another electronic based pop songwriting duo with a female vocalist and a male counterpart who plays all the instrumentation, you could easily be forgiven for stifling a yawn and looking blankly at these words with a sigh of “Oh no, the world really doesn’t need another La Roux.”

But if the Bulletproof duo are not your cup of tea, fear not, for His Girl Friday are a band that produce a much more adult pop sound than the youthful shrillness of La Roux. Synths are still predominant, but there are guitars in the mix and lead singer Jess Mills has a much more restful, easy on the ear vocal than young Elly. In fact it seems that just as in the eighties where post Live Aid electronic music found stadiums and grew out of teenage posing to take itself a little more seriously, then there are a number of acts such as the previously blogged The Cordelier Club and now His Girl Friday who are trying to make acceptable middle of the road pop music again. Take a listen to their version of MGMT’s Kids on their Myspace and you will see what we mean. They’ve stripped it naked of fashion and turned it into a sweet summery sounding acoustic piece. Then there’s Middle Of Nowhere which shows that they’re a bit like Tango In The Night era Fleetwood Mac, a band who they list as an influence on their Myspace together with Joni Mitchell, Korg, summer twilight and solitude. We think this sums His Girl Friday up almost perfectly.

Although His Girl Friday are currently unsigned they’ve already managed to get one of their wriggling polished pop songs, Take Shots in a new Virgin advert in Australia. One listen to it and you start to think, 'that sounds like a song that should be used on a TV advert'. It's obvious and safe enough not to offend but has enough tunefulness and melody to hold you. The group have also played Shepherds Bush Empire in London, as support to Just Jack, which seems a bit of a mis-match; but you have to grab these opportunities as you can. Take a look at the simple video below for their epic pulsing torch song Silent Space which has a hint of the chugging widescreen soundscapes that Polly Scattergood used on her debut album. If these are the sorts of sounds that will be preferred by record labels or the public remains to be seen. We pass that judgement to you, but we think there's a chance.