Latest news with #BiigPiig
The Guardian
21-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Biig Piig review – charismatic alt-popper struggles to find her rhythm
Satin bomber jacket slipping from her shoulders, Biig Piig is going all out – she's shimmying left, shimmying right, flipping her hair, pogoing at the mic stand. Opening track 4AM, with its muted, just-left-the-club vibe, doesn't really call for such a full-throttle show, but the Irish alt-pop musician – AKA Jessica Smyth – is selling it as a floor-filler. 'I know you don't want to be alone,' she croons, her voice featherlight, pumping a fist in the air. It is a night of mixed messages. Biig Piig's headline tour is in celebration of her long-awaited debut album 11:11, but only a handful of those songs are scattered through a setlist that spans three EPs, a mixtape, and assorted other singles, and it severs the narrative thread connecting them. Across that prolific, seven-year discography, Biig Piig has two modes: chilled-out, atmospheric songs influenced by trip-hop, R&B and jazz, and club-ready dance tracks with strobing synth and drum'n'bass drops. This evening, despite Smyth's committed performance, she doesn't find a balance between the two. Producer Mac Wetha's warm-up set was high BPM bangers only, but Smyth takes the stage to thrumming, ambient sounds and spends the first 30 minutes of her own show trying to add unnecessary muscle to her quieter material. Her band – a bassist/saxophonist and drummer – add interesting detail to some of those songs; moody Roses and Gold gets a great sax solo, and early track Perdida's introspective chorus – 'I just wanna lay here, smoke my cig and drink my wine' – wins a gentle singalong. But the nuances of album track One Way Ticket gets lost in the mix, leaving an up-for-it crowd fidgeting. Smyth's high-energy antics fall into place on a closing run of dance tracks. A wind machine is put to perfect use for new singles Favourite Girl, with its kitschy handclaps, and the heated, swaggering Decimal. She belts the chorus to 2020 hit Switch, and it comes from the gut. 'This record is about change, how we transform,' she told the crowd earlier; from this charismatic yet somewhat cautious show, it seems Biig Piig is still finding her final form. Biig Piig is touring the UK until 27 February
Yahoo
07-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Biig Piig: 11:11 review – long-awaited debut hovers on the edge of clubland
This long-awaited debut album arrives the best part of a decade after the viral Colors session that first introduced Jess Smyth's name under the umbrella of Biig Piig. In the interim, the Cork-born singer has tested the stylistic waters. Whether venturing into drum'n'bass on 2020's Switch, funk-pop on Feels Right or the fetish aesthetic of 2021's slinking Lavender, however, her distinctive, intimate vocals – sung in a mix of English and Spanish (she spent most of her preteen years in Málaga) – have been the red thread. In the run-up to 11:11, Smyth has spoken of the influence of club culture. Yet, with its pared-back stylings – delicate and hyperpop-adjacent on Ponytail; whispered on the nocturnal pulse of Cynical – the sense is often of someone appraising from the edges rather than throwing themselves all-in to the action. Decimal is an exception – a bilingual banger with a prowling strut; Stay Home is a hazy jam that sounds like a dawn walk back from the afterparty; while Brighter Day ends the album with a soothing trip-hop balm. It's perhaps when Biig Piig has left the club that she sounds most at home.
The Guardian
07-02-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Biig Piig: 11:11 review – long-awaited debut hovers on the edge of clubland
This long-awaited debut album arrives the best part of a decade after the viral Colors session that first introduced Jess Smyth's name under the umbrella of Biig Piig. In the interim, the Cork-born singer has tested the stylistic waters. Whether venturing into drum'n'bass on 2020's Switch, funk-pop on Feels Right or the fetish aesthetic of 2021's slinking Lavender, however, her distinctive, intimate vocals – sung in a mix of English and Spanish (she spent most of her preteen years in Málaga) – have been the red thread. In the run-up to 11:11, Smyth has spoken of the influence of club culture. Yet, with its pared-back stylings – delicate and hyperpop-adjacent on Ponytail; whispered on the nocturnal pulse of Cynical – the sense is often of someone appraising from the edges rather than throwing themselves all-in to the action. Decimal is an exception – a bilingual banger with a prowling strut; Stay Home is a hazy jam that sounds like a dawn walk back from the afterparty; while Brighter Day ends the album with a soothing trip-hop balm. It's perhaps when Biig Piig has left the club that she sounds most at home.
