Af Sandra S. Borch

Through the past five years the Rotterdam imprint Pinkman has established itself as one of the most consistent platforms for pushing and distributing retro-futuristic and driving electro grooves. This is marked with a compilation series called “Five Years of Tears”, and the first selection up features three usual suspects and one newcomer. Læs resten

V/A “Embrace” (Petrola 80, 2018) – anmeldelse af Alexander Julin, fotos: Cameron Pagett

Kompilationen “Embrace” fra det københavnske label Petrola 80 er den første i en serie af tre og rummer bidrag fra 11 kunstnere. Selv om de hver især skiller sig ud fra hinanden, udgør de alligevel tilsammen en helhed, der virker alt andet end tilfældig. “Embrace” er på ingen måde et fuldbyrdet portræt af dansk elektronisk musiks diversitet anno 2018, men den præsenterer et udsnit af dens mest interessante aktører, der udfordrer grænserne for det kunstneriske rum, de arbejder i, snarere end de søger tilbage til og genopfinder et givent musikalsk ophav. Læs resten

Oneohtrix Point Never “Age Of” (Warp, 2018) – review by Mikkel Rørbo, photo: Blake Wood

If you search for Oneohtrix Point Never on your favorite search engine or hegemonic digital platform, you’ll be told that Daniel Lopatin has been at it for quite a while, “Age Of” is (approximately) the 10th studio album from his hand and it is put out on seminal electronic label Warp. He has been busy doing a number of collaborations recently as well as scoring the movie “Good Time”. It shows on “Age Of”. There is a cinematic, narrative quality here for sure – I will get to that – and a number of the collaborators feature on the album, notably ANOHNI, but furthermore with contributions from percussionist Eli Keszler, noise superstar Prurient, keyboardist Kelsey Lu and producer James Blake.

“Age Of” is undeniably a great, albeit complicated, pop album. In my opinion it is in fact the best material from Lopatin to date, in turns extremely satisfying and challenging. It is great music, but that’s not why you keep coming back, as I’m sure many familiar with his previous work will recognize. OPN as a project has always been meticulous and extremely self-conscious about its inner workings and reference points, to me at least this has always been part of its appeal, but on “Age Of” this has been pronounced to an extreme degree, made into a conceptual point in itself. His previous album, “Garden of Delete”, also followed a conceptual story, so this conceptuality is hardly new for Oneohtrix Point Never – and indeed “Age Of” and “Myriad”, his current touring ‘concertscape’, follow a rough sci-fi narrative of omniscient AIs that want nothing more than to be dumb as humanity currently is. Fun stuff. Læs resten

Review of Exploded View @ Loppen, 5.6.2018 by Ivna Franic.

Last week’s Exploded View concert at Loppen was one of those gigs you could have easily missed out on, be it because you weren’t aware it was happening or because the band’s name didn’t ring a bell in the first place. But perhaps that shouldn’t come as a surprise.

The band’s frontwoman Anika has several acclaimed releases behind her – including Exploded View’s 2016 album for Sacred Bones, as well as her own debut LP recorded with Geoff Barrow’s (of Portishead fame) band Beak> and last year’s intriguing collaboration with Shackleton on Behind the Glass LP. In spite of some pretty impressive references, Annika Henderson – also known simply as Anika – had always seemed to prefer to maintain a low profile, representing an anomaly of sorts in contemporary music landscape. The Berlin/UK musician’s project Exploded View is a four-piece band assembled in Mexico City: apart from the regular members Hugo Quezada and Martin Thulin, this time the band was joined by Paulina Lasa. Læs resten

Alexander Weile Klostergaard / Jonathan West Carstensen “Rosenkammer” (Arena, 2018) – anmeldelse af Kim Elgaard Andersen

Efter at Bob Dylan modtog Nobelprisen i litteratur, er der åbnet for, at alle sangskrivere kan kravle op på poesiens tinder og smykke sig med to kreative titler: musiker og digter. Man kan så diskutere, om den nobelpriskomité er til at stole på efter de seneste måneders drama, der minder om skolegårdsfnidder, og som nær har opløst den prestigefyldte institution.

Nogle af de hjemlige sangskrivere, der vover sig selv som poeter, er Alexander Weile Klostergaard og Jonathan West Carstensen fra First Flush, som har imponeret de seneste par år med deres særlige bud på, hvordan luftig, kompleks guitarpop kan lyde på dansk, når det tilsættes desperate vokaler og vocoder. De har fået et stort udvalg af deres sangtekster, fra deres første sange fra “På Tinden” til det helt nye album “Spira”, udgivet på det hæderkronede Arena, der var modernismens og forfatternes forlag tilbage i 50’erne og 60’erne, mest kendt for at udgive Peter Seeberg. Så det er en stolt tradition, de træder ind i. Læs resten

Af Ida Selvejer Faaborg

Duoen Erna, der består af Kristian Paulsen og Anders Bach, udsendte tidligere i år udgivelsen “Pan” på det nye københavnske label Wetwear. Foruden “Pan” har Wetware udgivet to andre udgivelser: “Appropriate” af duoen JUICE., som også udgøres af Paulsen og Bach, samt “BLDG” af Anders Bach og Lars Bech Pilgaard under pseudonymet H E X.

“Pan” er en intens percussion-oplevelse, der består af fire korte numre og to længere. På de fire første numre findes en eksplosion af lag og rytmer – et hektisk og forpustet mylder af forskellige slagtøjsinstrumenter. Læs resten

CTM ”Red Dragon” (Posh Isolation, 2018) – anmeldelse af Morten Hviid Melsen

”Red Dragon” er det tredje udspil fra Cæcilie Triers CTM-alias. Hvor debut-EP’en ”Variations” (2012) rummede en håndfuld dansegulvsvenlige popsange, bød ”Suite for a Young Girl” (2016) på kompositioner af mere opbrudt og fri karakter. På ”Red Dragon” fortsætter erosionen af den sangform, der var projektets afsæt. Kompositionerne og produktionen er endnu mere fragmenterede og spredte, og sangene (hvilket man stadig kan kalde dem) får sjældent lov at opholde sig samme sted mere end kortvarigt, men skubbes hele tiden videre ind i andre rum og mod andre horisonter. Læs resten