CMU Approved

Approved: Grimes (TGE Gig Previews 2012)

By | Published on Wednesday 9 May 2012

Grimes

So, it hardly seems necessary to mention that the inimitable Grimes, aka Canada’s Claire Boucher, will form one of TGE’s most hyped live attractions this year. Her many faces, fringes and fashion reincarnations (as are pointed out in this excellent piece by Pitchfork’s Laura Snapes, which also touches on Boucher’s self-aware aesthetic ‘branding’ and the real significance of her XXX jewellery line) have graced multiple magazine covers and TV screens of late – not least her Jools Holland-chaperoned TV debut, during which she appeared with a jewelled third eye stuck to her forehead.

And yes, there’s a lot to know about Claire Boucher ‘the person’, whether it’s that she has a dim, drugs-beset past alluded to in various interviews, or that she fled a Neuroscience degree to take a brave (but ultimately, failed) voyage on a homemade tugboat down the Mississippi. Such are her brains and imagination though, that Boucher will always be much, much more than the novelty figurine many would seek – for convenience’s sake – to cast her as. Whatever her personal traits and past, they all but fade against the fluoro-futuristic lights of her glaringly good three album opus as Grimes.

Redesigning pop hyperbole in her own image, new LP ‘Visions’ is a dark refinement of Boucher’s craft (and… well, vision); the third part in a curve stemming from her skeletal debut ‘Geidi Primes’ to (second album) ‘Halfaxa’ standout ‘Heartbeats’, the moment she began to master the dark arts of purist/populist pop music.

Grimes will play The Great Escape on 12 May at Digital at 8.45pm. Prior to that, you can see her in both an official and unofficial capacity below, first in the video for ‘Visions’ single ‘Oblivion’, and second being largely ignored on a rooftop at SxSW 2012.

To read more Great Escape gig previews from the CMU team, head over here.



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