I have yet to hear someone discuss how they’d love to take my money as sympathetically as I have with Beautiful Small Machines’ joyously acoustic, recently released version of MIA’s ‘Paper Planes’ (streaming below). While some might dismiss the duo’s banjo/piano inventions here as mere novelty, there is something to be said about the loving time and care the band imparts to the tune that’s truly the attraction here. The band’s careful attention to details like this helps them to construct a world around their toys, building synth stabs that move to explosion in their last EP’s title track ‘Robots in Love,’ and the stomping B-52’s inspired ‘Superconducter.’
Their machines may be small, but their attention to aesthetic detail makes the efforts beautifully unique. No wonder Duran Duran’s Simon Le Bon accepted to work with them in their breakthrough track ‘Simple Joys.’ See the band when they play Piano’s this Friday evening. – Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets)