Passive/Aggressive

“Unfuck the World, You Stupid Girl” – If Grimes is the Villain What Does That Make Us?

Feature April 9 2020, af nilsbloch

An essay about pop music and the climate crisis with Grimes as a case study. “Miss Anthropocene” is out now on 4AD. Written by Macon Holt. Grimes, Claire Boucher, C, or indeed the eponymous “Miss Anthropocene”, has gone to a lot of trouble to invent alter egos for herself as a part of her creative practice. But reading the swathe of not-mad-but-disappointed reviews of ...

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Messell – The complex beauty of our communicative failures (interview)

March 21 2020, af mikkelarre

By Macon Holt “If no one fits in,” said Martin Messell to me in his studio in Nørrebro, Copenhagen, “then maybe we don’t have to worry about fitting in.” We were talking about the concept behind his first album under his surname as an artist’s moniker, “Ligesom Rigtige Mennesker”. In translation, the title has a certain ambiguity as it can mean either “just like ...

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Peter Voss-Knude – “Danish politics are the mother of this record”

Feature March 4 2020, af nilsbloch

Feature/Interview by Macon Holt “Danish politics are the mother of this record”, Peter Voss-Knude told me in a small cafe around the corner from the Museum of Contemporary Art in Roskilde, where his new exhibition, “The Anti-Terror Album”, manifest both as an exhibition and a record, has just opened. He is of course referring both to recent policies that have seen threats of refugees having whatever ...

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Randi Pontoppidan & Christian Rønn – Improvisation carefully avoiding the clichés

Kritik March 2 2020, af mikkelarre

Randi Pontoppidan & Christian Rønn “Head¨Space” (Chant Records, 2020) – review by Giuseppe Pisano This record came as an unexpected surprise to me. Two very prolific Danish artists, Randi Pontoppidan and Christian Rønn, bring us a collaborative album that feels like a natural musical experience, maieutically emerging from some sort of metaphysical connection and then shared to the audience, rather than a planned out, structured album ...

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Alexander Holm – The Understated Sci-Fi of “GiVa1G”

Blog Kritik February 24 2020, af nilsbloch

Alexander Holm “GiVa1G” (Sensorisk Verden, 2019) – Review by Macon Holt Known for his work with Vid Edda, Group 4K, Young Bragi amongst others, the prolific Danish sound artist, Alexander Holm, released “GiVa1G” last year, the first album under his own name. “GiVa1G” is a high concept suite of pieces that draw much of their material from field recordings made on an expedition to ...

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Perko – Incorporating Copenhagen soundscapes into introspective techno tunes (interview)

February 21 2020, af Alexander Julin

Interview by Alexander Julin Mortensen, photo by Matthew McArthur Williams The Scottish, Copenhagen-based producer Perko debuted back in 2018 with the release “NV Auto” on likewise Scottish label Numbers (Lanark Artefax, Peder Mannerfelt, Randomer, etc.). On February 7th, Perko returned with his sophomore release, the 8 track-long “The City Rings”. While the release, according to Perko himself, may be characterised by more smooth sounds than his debut, “The City Rings” still demonstrates his skills and taste for ...

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Brooch – Impulsive rock on a tight schedule (premiere)

Blog January 30 2020, af mikkelarre

By Mikkel Arre Ben Stidworthy and Mikkel Holm Silkjær met when their regular bands, Ought and Yung, toured together in 2016. They started a duo called Brooch and released their first 7” a year later. Tomorrow the duo will release a six-track EP on Silkjær’s Shordwood Records. We have asked them three questions about the EP – read the answers and listen to the entire record below.

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Solhorn – Image and sound intertwined in a feedback loop

Blog January 27 2020, af mikkelarre

Solhorn ”Kredsbevægelsen” (År & Dag, 2019) – review by Wieland Rambke The dominance of algorithms has come into being at breath-taking speed, particularly in the last 20 years. Coding as a creative tool is spreading fast among musicians, artists and designers, sitting in an odd position between strict science and artistic expression, between the subjective and the objective. Yet the nature of code is elusive: We ...

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Young Bragi – Sitting Close To A Stranger (mixtape)

Mixtape January 25 2020, af passive/aggressive

Text and mixtape by Alexander Holm “Sitting Close To A Stranger” presents unreleased tracks of Young Bragi along side favourite harp artists and storytellers. Among many darlings it features Alice Coltrane, Andreas Vollenweider and Dorothy Ashby. It features a live recording of Dawda Jorbateh from his concert at next door record shop Insula Musicʼs last day before closing down (RIP). It features the theme song of ...

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