Music / IncomingThe Macroprosopus Dancehall Band at ICAA 30 strong girl group using drums, mics, guitars, basses, voices, and a cheese grater made some noise at the ICA.ShareLink copied ✔️November 7, 2008MusicIncomingTextGeorgie HobbsThe Macroprosopus Dancehall Band at ICA The ICA's Nought To Sixty season flagged up a hell of a lot of emerging artistic talent over the past six months. No surprise then, that the closing party was packed with people with suitably high expectations.But they pulled it off. For starters, you couldn't move without bumping into one of the Macroprosopus Dancehall Band. And secondly – free beer.Of course, the highlight was actually seeing the debut performance of the band itself.The Macroprosopus Dancehall Band is the brainchild of Leopard Leg's Maya-Victoria Kjellstrand and Plan B magazine's Frances Morgan. Commissioned by London-based art agency, ELECTRA, the 30-strong all-girl group use drums, mics, guitars, basses, voices, and a cheese grater to make a powerful, all-consuming sound influenced by the noise of insects swarming.See what I mean? Totally awesome.By the time they played the first of their two performances, they'd been practising solidly for over seven hours. They were stressed, but ready. Come 8 o'clock, the atmosphere was tense as the crowd walked into the near darkness, illuminated by a few candles and dim spotlights. Half went on in, while the rest of the party mingled in the bar, lapping up the free drink.10 o'clock came and heralded the final performance. A band member in a black bodysuit started tapping. Not tap-dancing exactly but keeping a steady, exhaustive beat for the group. Soon after the percussion kicked in (four girls behind four drum kits) as did the voices. Wild hoots and raw screams took the place of lyrics as girls leaned hard into their mics. A woman behind a laptop hiked up the distortion while four on the floor wrestled with contact mics as the guitarists stomped on effects pedals. The passion was palpable, and when the sound reached its grungey, chaotic apex it truly was transportive. The part-practised, part-improv performance gave the lighting guy a bit of trouble, but mesmerised the crowd as lashings of noise ebbed and flowed around us for 40 minutes or more.Dedicated to noise collaboration, the science of the swarm and the spiritualism for which they're named (doubters should Google 'Macroprosopus'), the band garner more comparisons to the hyper neo-tribalism of Gang Gang Dance and Animal Collective than to any dancehall you might know. With their implausibly high sonic aims, they're over-achievers, for sure, but all the more powerful for it.Nought To Sixty – you did us proud. Escape the algorithm! Get The DropEmail address SIGN UP Get must-see stories direct to your inbox every weekday. Privacy policy Thank you. You have been subscribed Privacy policy Expand your creative community and connect with 15,000 creatives from around the world.READ MOREBillionhappy is the ‘king’ of the Nu China rap sceneWhat makes a good sex song?MerrellMerrell 1TRL trades the trail for Shoreditch to launch Moab Slide WovenRap band WHATMORE are the sound of New York adolescence ‘Emo boy got the party lit’: The UK underground has a new identity crisisRawayana: How a Venezuelan pop band became political exiles‘Silence is punk as fuck’: Frost Children and Ninajirachi go head-to-head‘Fast, angry, chaotic’: The story behind the Prodigy’s ‘Firestarter’ video‘There’s been tears’: RZA on the final days of Wu-Tang ClanWhat went down at the beabadoobee Dazed cover signing Kim Gordon selects: What to listen to, watch and read7 of beabadoobee’s greatest collabsEscape the algorithm! Get The DropEmail address SIGN UP Get must-see stories direct to your inbox every weekday. Privacy policy Thank you. You have been subscribed Privacy policy