Chicks on Speed
photo: fotodimatti · cc by-sa 3.0 ↗Chicks on Speed formed at Munich's Academy of Fine Arts in 1997, turning art-school conceptualism into deadpan, DIY electroclash built from cheap synths, spoken-sung vocals, and handmade fashion. Alongside Peaches and Le Tigre, they helped define electroclash's fusion of feminist performance art and dancefloor electro-pop. Their scrappy, multidisciplinary approach to pop as an art project prefigured much of the internet-era DIY electronic scene.
Chicks on Speed's deadpan vocal delivery and stripped electronic backing nod toward Kraftwerk's minimalist machine-pop, part of the shared visual and sonic vocabulary electroclash drew on.
listen forHear the flat, mechanized vocal delivery of Kraftwerk's 'The Robots' echoed in the deadpan sneer of Chicks on Speed's 'Glamour Girl.'
Gary Numan's icy, alienated synth-pop is part of the new-wave visual and sonic vocabulary electroclash acts like Chicks on Speed drew on.
listen forCompare the cold synth lines of Gary Numan's 'Cars' to the deadpan electro backing of Chicks on Speed's 'Mind Your Own Business.'
DEVO's art-school new-wave satire and mock-uniform aesthetic anticipated the knowing, costume-driven performance art of Chicks on Speed.
listen forSet the jerky, satirical new-wave energy of DEVO's 'Whip It' against the arch electro-pop of Chicks on Speed's 'UTOPIA.'