Stream: The Big Pink, ‘Hightimes’

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Robbie Furze and Mary Charteris of the Big Pink (Photo by Jamie Burke)
Robbie Furze and Mary Charteris of the Big Pink (Photo by Jamie Burke)

The Big Pink landed with a bang in 2008, the U.K. duo of Robbie Furze and Milo Cordell rattling bones with the My Bloody Valentine-meets-M83 bombast of the ’09 single “Dominos” (the highlight of their debut “A Brief History of Love”) and then carrying on with 2012’s full-length “Future This.” That second album lacked the wallop of the first, and now Cordell has moved on to a different future, minding his record label, Merok. Furze is carrying on with a lineup of the wispy Mary Charteris on keyboards and vocals, and the muscular rhythm section of bassist Jesse Russell and drummer Free Hallas.

What the Big Pink does is still rock music for ravers, with low-end blowback matching the intensity of the wall-of-sound guitars and synths, and the twist in the new single “Hightimes” is the sweet vocal part delivered by Charteris, a model, DJ and Furze’s bride (Sean Lennon was their wedding photographer, the tabloids tell us). Anyway, “Hightimes,” the Big Pink’s first new music in three years, was one of a handful of new songs the quartet debuted this week on the first night of a free, three-Monday residency at the Echo. The best of the rest was the rager “Decoy,” which will appear on Big Pink’s “Empire Underground” EP early next year. A full-length album, featuring featuring collaborations with Andrew Wyatt (Miike Snow) and Beth Ditto (The Gossip) will follow. Bring earplugs.

||| Stream: “Hightimes”

||| Live: The Big Pink performs Nov. 23 and 30 at the Echo.