"According to Discogs, there are 521 musical releases with the title “Pretty Baby.” From Dean Martin to Vanessa Carlton, generations of musicians have utilized the tried-and-true sweetness hardwired into the nickname. This has not gone lost on SASSY 009, an electro-pop trio from Oslo—but, unlike their predecessors, their sound here is sour and caustic. Their singing and production is frigid and trance-like; the sonic terrain they navigate is a soup of thick static that bubbles with metallic percussion and needling synth lines that dribble like droplets of mercury. Their cool voices intermingle, chanting quietly about that “pretty baby” whom they want to reach out and touch. But amid all the noise, they are distant and apparitional, like eerie voices coming from the other end of a telephone. In contradiction to its name, “Pretty Baby,” is not all that bright or charming. Rather, SASSY 009 offer a spooky yet enchanting alternative to the run-of-the-mill love song." - PITCHFORK

[Programming descriptions are generated by participants and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of SXSW.]