Lau Nau‘s Poseidon was one of our top picks for 2017, and it hasn’t lost its appeal in the opening days of 2018. The video for “Elina” shows off the album’s cinematic, fragile qualities, matching Enya’s dreaminess with the impressions of Nordic folk songs. You can keep your Hocico – this is what we want to hear when our hearts are breaking.
The irrepressible Kanga covers Gary Numan’s classic, “Metal.” We’re afraid of the liquid engineers, too.
Back in 2015, this came from a group of Icelandic doomtronica merchants who do cool so much better than the whole of Shoreditch. Take that, hipsters.
Hélène du Thoury is best known for her work with Minuit Machine. Hante. (with the period) is her solo project, and it’s as dark, moody and sensual as you would expect. French is the natural language for minimal wave material, just as German is for EBM. In this brooding track, taken from the recent album, No Hard Feelings, du Thoury turns on the sonic smoke machines to their highest setting.
Norway’s current best export, Highasakite, have revealed an acoustic version of “Samurai Swords.” The original appears on their current album, Camp Echo, in an electronic form. Their unplugged effort shows off their roots, as a lovely complement to the album version.
Jennie Vee is one of our favourite singers. Whether playing alongside Courtney Love or warming up for Echo & The Bunnymen, Vee is the picture of East Village glam (even if she is on the left coast these days). Her own material is fabulous dreampop, and she takes a great picture. On top of that, she’s Canadian by birth, has a Scottish last name and boasts Finnish roots that once provided the name for her early punk act.
What were the odds, then, that she would connect with John Fryer for his Black Needle Noise project? The spiritual successor to This Mortal Coil, BNN is the acid that eats metal, the enzyme that dissolves flesh, and the vapour that swallows light. Fryer, who is best known for his production and mixing work (yeah, Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails, He Said – his name is on all of your records), has been talent-spotting singers for the BNN collaborations, so it’s our good fortune that they have come together for “Heaven.”
Fryer’s instrumental track grinds in the lower registers; lifted only partially into the light by the doom-gloom vocals of Vee. This is one of the darkest BNN tracks to date, and it is spellbinding in its intensity. Don’t listen while operating heavy machinery – there is no need, since they are already doing that, and it can’t be safe.
John Fryer‘s Black Needle Noise project has picked out many of the best singers from a number of different scenes. The legendary producer and songsmith, who is best known as one-half of This Mortal Coil’s permanent line-up and for his studio work with Depeche Mode, MARRS, Clan of Xymox and others, has been on a tear, working up new songs with spirit, space and sensuality. Featured vocalists and lyricists for BNN have included Jarboe, Elena Alice Fossi and Attasalina, who have impressed Fryer’s songs with new shades of feeling.
BNN’s latest offering is “Warning Sign,” featuring Kendra Frost. The London-based singer is normally found with a bass guitar in hand, alongside fellow bassist Ayşe Hassan (also of Savages), in Kite Base. We spotted the duo warming up for Hannah Peel at an intimate show last year, but it was their video for a cover of Nine Inch Nails’ “Something I Can Never Have” that brought them to Fryer’s attention.
Fryer produced the NIN original, and when he got wind of Kite Base’s version he was taken by Frost’s treatment of the vocals. An invitation to work on a BNN track followed, and the resulting transmission from Fryer’s studio is a mighty signal from the North. The stylisation of This Mortal Coil is the resonance of Fryer’s soul, and it continues to flow into BNN: “Warning Sign” combines the lightest synthetic filaments with flying shards of guitar and depleted uranium beats. The sonic alchemist that he is, Fryer seamlessly blends ecstacy and agony, holding them together with a touch of reverb.
Frost’s contribution is outstanding. Her lyrics are a raw description of anxiety, reduced to its purest elements. Her voice betrays no sense of panic, however, as it flows in layers, soars over Fryer’s driving rhythms, or stretches out to reveal rich textures. Fight or flight might be the normal response to a warning sign, but the better one here is to listen and enjoy.
We first heard this song at Hannah Peel’s storming live show in East London last year, and now it’s coming out with studio spit and polish. The whiskey-drinking Peel describes it as a song written to comfort a friend, and it certainly drapes you in smooth curtains of sound that take away all the pain.
Kari Berg is not just a singer, actress and model. The Swedish vocalist (Ashbury Heights, Chaos All Stars) is also an anti-bullying activist. As a project leader for Sweden’s “Rätten till sin identitet” (EN: “The Right to Their Identity”), Berg is highly visible in work with youth in subcultures who face oppression and violence for liking their own music and fashion. RTSI is similar to the UK’s Sophie Lancaster Foundation, a charity set up following the unprovoked murder of Lancaster and her partner in Lancashire.
To support RTSI’s work, Berg has collaborated with Yves Schelpe from the Belgian band, Psy’Aviah, to create this song and video. The title, “It’s Just Words,” refers to the gossip and slander that is used to marginalise people who simply wish to be themselves. The story in the video was inspired by “Promenaden” [EN: “The Promenade”] by Emelie Engwall, taken from the RTSI-published book, “Våra Berättelser” [EN: “Our Stories”].
“It’s Just Words” is a great groove for the weekend, but it’s got a serious message, too.
LINKS
Rätten till sin identitet
Kari Berg Web Site
Psy’Aviah Web Site
Sophie Lancaster Foundation
The annual pagan fertility festival, dressed in Christian disguise, has been and gone; but, for those who weren’t into taking part, there is this sleek, YMO-influenced track from Norway’s Pieces of Juno. “Valentine” is about being not being someone else’s Valentine or having to make someone else yours. The first track from Juno’s forthcoming EP, Frisson, nevertheless has the feel of a sine romance. Is that because of the cinematic qualities of the track or because of the deft interplay between the vocals and beats? Hard to say on first listen, but repeated plays make the heart grow fonder.