Marsheaux
Schmoof
Electronically Yours @ Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen, London
Thursday October 11 2007

Past the bouncers, past the diners. Into the back room, and all of a sudden the Hoxton Square Bar And Kitchen turns from a trendy restaurant into an authentic rock 'n' roll hole. Stage at the front, bar at the back, and everything is painted black. That's all you need, really, isn't it?

Tonight the Electronically Yours webzine celebrates the birthday of The Human League by hosting a gig which, at first glance, has very little to do with The Human League. The band is not scheduled to play; no members are present. In a way, Sheffield's finest electropop-exponents are just the hook upon which a contemporary electro show has been conveniently hung, and although there are many big-ups for the band from the bouncily enthusiastic MC during the evening, it's not necessary to be a diehard League-head to dig this gig.

Schmoof are a classic boy/girl electro duo - and then again, they're not. The traditional set-up of a po-faced bloke standing behind a keyboard, while a female singer gives it the full diva thing out front doesn't really apply here. Both Schmoofs (Schmooves?), clad in purple PVC and toting strap-on keyboards as if ready to shoot from the hip, have clearly been necking showbiz juice, and the visual identity of the band - the strutting and grooving, the mash-ups and the moves - is shared equally between both Sarah Barnett, on vocals and keys, and Lloyd Russell, on keys and vocals. Take either one of them away, and you wouldn't have Schmoof.

Did I mention strutting? I believe I did, and Sarah Barnett certainly knows how to work those assertive heels, as she stalks the stage as if intent on bending the entire audience to her will. But even as she stalks, she's hard pressed to supress a grin. Schmoof have humour running through their art like the icing in a Swiss roll, and their back-projections - vintage computer graphics, the kind where everything looks like it's made of lego - have a goofy faux-sophistication that seems downright endearing now. Back in the 80s, of course, we'd all be gasping at the sheer futurism of it all. Here in the twenty-first century, we can simply soak up the tunes, because the foundation of everything, the factor that underpins Schmoof's humour, the lego-graphics, the purple PVC and the assertive heels, is the band's extensive repertoire of instant-connection pop confections. 'Rock Wife' lampoons the rock 'n' roll lifestyle with scathing wit (although you suspect that Schmoof are secretly in love the Transit-van-on-the-road-to-oblivion lifestyle themselves) while 'Chocolate Boyfriend' is probably the only time sex and confectionery have been so blatantly weighed in the balance in the history of popular music.

There's a guest guitar-burst by Willy Billiams (who vanishes under a heap of purple PVC, as both Schmoof-members gleefully pile on top of him) and when the set eventually struts and slinks to a close there's a distinct feeling that it's over too soon. Schmoof's genius is to filter retro influences through contemporary, knowing, humour, and nail it all to a genuine pop songwriting sensibiliity and a neat line in showbiz larking. It's all really rather gorgeous. If the eighties actually had been like this, we'd never have wanted to leave.

I don't know how famous Marsheaux are in their home country of Greece, but they certainly have a bit of profile with electro aficionados in the UK. Their appearance is greeted with huge cheers. The band's on-stage appearance, it must be said, is a little awkward. The principal duo of Marianthi and Sohie stand centre stage, cool and besuited, behind minimalist samplers. Meanwhile a couple of scruffy blokes lurk at the side behind a more extensive array of gear, and it's they who probably have more to do with the overall sound than the girls up front. The band's ruling aesthetic of everybody-stand-behind-equipment certainly means there's not much in the way of a show, but this, which would have been something of a fatal error for many electro acts I could name, is no big deal here.

Because Marsheaux have the songs - an apparently limitless supply of almost supernaturally catchy electronic anthems that seep into the bloodstream of the innocent listener like drugs, and are all delivered with an effortless eurodisco cool that taps into the mighty influence-stream of Kraftwerk and Gina X as much as the poptastic stuff that enlivened - or cluttered, however you care to look at it - the British pop charts of the 80s. Marsheaux can cover the Lightning Seeds' 'Pure' and make a pin-neat job of it, but their own towering anthem to glitter balls and neon, 'Dream Of A Disco' has us all instantly transported to some gitzy fun-palace, somewhere in the greater Europe - prosaic old Hoxton instantly vanishes for the duration of the song, I can tell you that. Marianthi and Sohie themselves remain reserved and restrained throughout, although their smiles become wider as the applause becomes wilder, and I suspect that they're hard pressed to prevent themselves from rushing out from behind their samplers and giving it large up front. But the polished chrome cool of the mighty Marsheaux machine never cracks, and the electro anthems never fail to find the target. Tonight's gig might be intended as a tribute to certain old-skoolers, but you know what? The class of now sounds pretty good to me.

Essential links:

Schmoof: Website | MySpace
Marsheaux: Website | MySpace

Electronically Yours: Website | MySpace

For more photos from this gig, find the bands by name here.