Wild Belle

(http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/feb/15/new-band-wild-belle)
Paul Lester
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 15 February 2012 17.27 GMT
Hometown: Chicago.
The lineup: Natalie Bergman (vocals) and Elliot Bergman (saxophone, keyboards).
The background: It's not ideal basing a New Band of the Day on one song, but there's not a lot we can do about it in this case. We certainly can't wait for more music. We've been told we can hear another track by Wild Belle, the band in question, tomorrow. Problem is, by then it will be too late to write about them – most of the free world will know everything about them and we'll be trailing in their dust. So we're doing them now, before the buzz becomes deafening.
We're predicting Lana Del Rey-sized interest in Wild Belle, a duo from Chicago who may or may not be siblings (yup, that old chestnut). And their Video Games is debut single Keep You, which they first posted on their Bandcamp a month or so ago. It is a striking way to open their account, a weird hybrid of skanking riddims and spacey synth-pop. The beat and gorgeous melody have the perky poignancy of Althea and Donna's Uptown Top Ranking or Dawn Penn's You Don't Love Me (No No No), only the whole thing seems to have been put through a special chill(wave) filter. Did someone say "Specials"? Because the saxophone reminds us of our favourite 2 Tone band and marks the second appearance in this column this week of an outfit touting brass.
The sax is played by Elliot Bergman, who used to be in a band called NOMO, but equally remarkable are the somehow swoony yet strident vocals of his "sister", which are pitched midway between Sarah Cracknell of Saint Etienne and Santigold. She can do coquettish ("I've got a pretty face and I wear a nice dress"), and she can do withering ("Tell me what the matter is, little man?"). The effect is haunting but naggingly infectious – a double-whammy if ever we heard one. Whether or not the rest of their material will continue in this ethereal-ska vein we have no idea, although attendants at this year's SXSW, where Wild Belle are playing and bound to be one of the buzz-bands, will find out. Apparently, their influences include Etta James, Tom Tom Club, Delroy Wilson, OutKast and Eurythmics, so there are some clues, and they recently performed in Chicago alongside the excellent Class Actress, Chairlift and the soon to be highly touted Poli?a, where their set ranged from funk and reggae to blues and old-school R&B, so there's a few more. Let's just hope they don't go too trad, because this cosmic lovers' rock they've patented on Keep You would seem to be the way forward.