Listening to a youtube mix from one of the more "unusual" bands from last years Eurosonic Festival, Hurra Torpedo from Norway, playing various household equipment such as stoves, washing machines, chest freezers, frying pans etc.
- "Their music is radically intense, charged with energy, crackling. Yet Denseland's energy doesn't come from what is typically called "power". On the contrary, Denseland masters the art of reduction. There's a brief clattering or scratching over the strings now and then; otherwise, the scaffolding of bass and drums remains skilled yet spare, so that nodes of density emerge even more dramatically.
One of the most expressive vocal artists of our time, David Moss, adapts himself completely to this art of restraint, reducing his voice to whispers, murmurs, rasps and mutterings, using it like a code incomprehensible to outsiders. In a kind of secret language, Moss communicates with the other musicians through pithy onomatopoetic play with the voice as resonator, rather than with the expressive vocal extremes he is known for.
Stylistically it's impossible to pin down the territory of Denseland. While elements of free improvisation enter into the pieces, they are nonetheless quite clearly structured and self-contained. A powerful bass and driving drums are the deeply anchored framework and starting point for the trio's mutual prowl around each other - hinting at song structures without ever allowing them to coalesce into a conventional song. So the tension remains, filled with "animalistic" and tribal sounds that never become concrete, never refer to anything. This music is evolution and motion. It is activity rather than a product. If you want, you can find references to the gray area between free improvisation and post-punk, bands like Material, The Golden Palominos, The Pop Group ... yet all that only offers at most a vague orientation, since Denseland's form is more open and without a rock-like structure, uses pauses cleverly as a stylistic device to give their music even more presence, and hints here and there at traces of dub. It all creates a seductive groove, never demanding, never pushy, but subtle, dusky, ambiguous and intense."
- MOSZ 2010
Comments
- Don't miss the priceless Pokerface/Barbie Girl mashup !
;-)
http://www.hurratorpedo.org/ - Emusic
Love, love, love this album.
@BN, Hurra Torpedo are one of the worst things I have seen in a very long time.
Craig
- "Their music is radically intense, charged with energy, crackling. Yet Denseland's energy doesn't come from what is typically called "power". On the contrary, Denseland masters the art of reduction. There's a brief clattering or scratching over the strings now and then; otherwise, the scaffolding of bass and drums remains skilled yet spare, so that nodes of density emerge even more dramatically.
One of the most expressive vocal artists of our time, David Moss, adapts himself completely to this art of restraint, reducing his voice to whispers, murmurs, rasps and mutterings, using it like a code incomprehensible to outsiders. In a kind of secret language, Moss communicates with the other musicians through pithy onomatopoetic play with the voice as resonator, rather than with the expressive vocal extremes he is known for.
Stylistically it's impossible to pin down the territory of Denseland. While elements of free improvisation enter into the pieces, they are nonetheless quite clearly structured and self-contained. A powerful bass and driving drums are the deeply anchored framework and starting point for the trio's mutual prowl around each other - hinting at song structures without ever allowing them to coalesce into a conventional song. So the tension remains, filled with "animalistic" and tribal sounds that never become concrete, never refer to anything. This music is evolution and motion. It is activity rather than a product. If you want, you can find references to the gray area between free improvisation and post-punk, bands like Material, The Golden Palominos, The Pop Group ... yet all that only offers at most a vague orientation, since Denseland's form is more open and without a rock-like structure, uses pauses cleverly as a stylistic device to give their music even more presence, and hints here and there at traces of dub. It all creates a seductive groove, never demanding, never pushy, but subtle, dusky, ambiguous and intense."
- MOSZ 2010
It has been all minimal synth, all the time today. Apparently I'm in a bit of a dark mood.
Craig
Coincidence - I was already playing it before I saw that you were too, amclark!
Craig
Also (still) offered as a free DL from the artist at http://chriskelsey.com/blog/?p=3737
Craig
I bought this quite a while back on reputation, and it has taken me a surprisingly long while to warm to it. But I'm starting to rather like it.
Nostalgia afternoon.