Northern Lights
September 15th, 2006
God bless the Norse! Were it not for the wonderful Nordic peoples of Northern Europe in all their myriad forms, Western civilization would be vastly impoverished, lacking such essentials as Ikea, truly-Satanic black metal, Swedish meatballs (and the Swedish Chef), behornéd helms, the Valkyries, Sören Kierkegaard, August Strindberg, and–most of all–lots of really excellent music. There’s just something about the Swedes, the Norwegians, the Finns, the Danes, and the Icelanders–something perhaps genetic, or related to the fact that they spend most of their lives freezing solid in subarctic darkness–that contributes to folks from these fabled lands being superb musicians, especially when synths and electronics are involved. Check it out: Sweden has given us S.P.O.C.K. and Covenant (who, admittedly, are only good on odd-numbered albums, but when they’re on one, they are on one), Norway exported Aqua and Röyskopp, Denmark The Raveonettes, Finland the Gothic metal of Nightwish and triumphant winners of the 2006 Eurovision Award LORDI! Now, it is true that Iceland has given the world the monotone, whiny murk of Sigur Ros, but remember: that little volcanic Island of way too many umlauts has also given the world The Sugarcubes and Björk’s uneven, but generally awesome, crazy-little-girl electropop. And Múm.
Based on the above sampling, it’s tempting to think of the Scandinavian world as being a hotbed of synthpop, squiggly-squirmy IDM, and either sludgy, sloppy black metal or glorious dragon-slaying power metal. But don’t forget: the New Wave got its start in the US and Great Britain, and while the Tsunami of Sheer Awesomeness that was the genre peaked and then resided here in the States, leaving behind a flotsam of stalwart bands to hold true to the synth-combo flame during the godawful 1990s, it never really subsided in Europe–especially in the chilly seaside haunts and crags of the Great White North. Today, thanks to the Newer Wave revival that most people still like to call by the fresh, trendy name “indie rock”, some New Wave bands from the Land of the Vikings are catching the rest of the world’s ear…and I’m here to introduce you to the two best: Whitest Boy Alive and Husky Rescue.
Whitest Boy Alive is the totally non-electronic New Wave project of prolific Norwegian electronic/indie/folk artist-and-DJ Erlend Øye (also known for his work as part of Kings of Convenience). As worthy as Mister Oyeah’s other projects are–his solo album Unrest will get its own article someday soon–Whitest Boy Alive trumps them as surely as Trevor Horn’s work as The Buggles trumps everything he’s ever done with Art of Noise, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Seal, or even Yes. According to the band’s website, Whitest Boy Alive “started as an electronic dance music project in 2003″, but “has slowly developed into a band without any programmed elements.” What the band has truly developed into is a lush, yet minimalistic, evocation of the all finest elements of early-80’s New Wave. Their debut album, Dreams, is nothing less than the best New Wave rock album of 1982, arriving twentyfour years late and therefore becoming the default best New Wave rock album of 2006.
The music is as simple, yet as compelling, as anything by vintage Gang of Four or The Jam, though the name of the game with Whitest Boy Alive is not driving post punk but mellow, languid, yet still booty-movin’ pop rock. You’ve got drums, lead guitar, sometimes rhythm guitar, bass, occasional understated synths, and vocals–and that’s it. The production is clean and almost distortion-free; only a slight twang of overdrive can be heard once in a while. The drums are dry and uneffected, the bass sharp and prominent, but the guitars and synths and Erlend Oyez’s trademark gentle vocals all lathered up with creamy reverb–not too much, though! This ain’t a goth-rock album! To be honest, at times the band sounds like the vocalist from Double (remember? “The Captain of her Heart”) singing with The Eels.
But, my god, the hooks! The melodies! These songs are all as catchy as a dose of the ebola, and will leave you feverish with grins and excitement–they lodge in the brain like pieces of shrapnel from a New Wave bomb. The lead track, “Burning”, kicks the album off with a bouncy guitar riff and breathy vocals that I guarantee you will be humming for hours on end…but then “Above You” kicks in with its slower, funkier groove and its twiddly synths, calling to mind Echo & The Bunnymen getting down with Devo. The album explores a whole world of contemporary New Wavey influences, from Bloc Party beats to Revolver Modele’s jangling guitars and the dreamy soul of Iron & Wine. “Don’t Give Up” is a sweet ballad, of sorts, that would be perfectly at home over the obligatory after-the-big-fight-at-the-prom montage from a John Hughes film, and “Golden Cage” is nothing less than pure funky bassline cut with a lazy sunset melody and moody, I-give-up lyrics. The music is pretty. And rocking. And refreshing….One straight-through listen of the entire album will leave you feeling like you just ran into an old, beloved New Waver friend whom you haven’t seen in ages, but have discovered is still wearing the same Ducky hat, the same checkered Sketchers, and the same plaid suitjacket with Men At Work at Echo & The Bunnymen pins all over it.
Now…let’s change pace here a bit. Whitest Boy Alive is a rather mellow project, but raving about them above has gotten me a bit worked up. It’s time to lower the bpm now and relax into a nice, cool bath of slide-guitar melodies, frosty synths, and end-of-summer lyrics that evoke colorful images of…Vikings riding into the sunset? Yep.
Husky Rescue is an odd musical beast, rather like the jackalope or any other critter of American tall-tale lore: a Finnish studio “band” that combines elements of downtempo, lo-fi electronica with good ol’ American country, psychedelic rock, and cinematic atmospherics a lá Angelo Badalamenti and Ennio Morricone. The band is basically just producer Marko Nyberg, who “wanted to compose cinematic music strongly influenced by the power of films and the hypnotic quality of photography and paintings”. In order to bring this about, he enlisted twenty other vocalists, guitarists, synth wizards, and so forth to actually accomplish just that: music that enters your brain through your ears and blossoms into beautiful, evocative visions through the power of sonic suggestion (though being synaesthetic helps a great deal). This is psychedelic music, people. This is music that creeps into you and slides like a cool, refreshing mist of neurotransmitters through your nerves and soaks the imagination in inspiration. You simply cannot listen to Husky Rescue without sinking back into your seat and enjoying the gorgeous scenery that the music will whisper to you.
Country Falls, Husky Rescue’s debut album, opens with “Sweet Little Kitten”, a lovely little song as warm and fuzzy as the kitten its lyrics describe. Silky slide guitar opens the song atop a plodding bassline and a gentle beat, whispery vocals wrap you in cotton warmth. If Mazzy Star and The Scud Mountain Boys had had a child, this song would be it. Things pick up a bit with “Summertime Cowboy”, the album’s single, which is a sexy, uptempo jam propelled by sultry vocals, laserlight soundeffects, and a delicious lo-fi synth leads that sounds like a piano lick sampled from an ancient Nashville 45 single. This is the kind of song you’d expect playing in a David Lynch film, accompanied by gentle, acidic imagery: saffron clouds kindled by a bloody, falling sun hang light above as the moon, like a distant discoball, emerges from the deep purple east and languid country girls linedance in the chilly evening air. “New Light of Tomorrow” follows with a lachrymose slide guitar intro and lovely, lovely vocal harmonies that swell in stereo clouds to swallow you whole and hold you drifting in a warm, but lonely space where synths billow in slow-motion like silvery clouds soaked in reverb. And these are just the first three songs on the album.
In fact, Country Falls holds solid almost on every song–the only exception being “Sleep Tight Tiger”, a sweet lullabye to a sleeping child marred by the dullness of the vocals and the sheer triteness of the lyrics. But even at its worst, this album is brilliant–a truly postmodern fusion of sounds from the American West and the synthetic gloaming of Finland. Many of the tracks have an almost Radiohead-like feel to them in their seamless melding of live and synthesized instruments, but none of them are sullied by Radiohead’s typical underproduction and lack of melody. It’s rare to find a dreampop album that has catchy tunes…but this is it. These drowsy melodies stick with you and will haunt your mind with colors and scenes from surrealist westerns long after you’re done listening. It’s rare these days to find good psychedelic music, as most of what is passed off as such these days is either bad trance or even worse ambient. But Husky Rescue’s music is so consistently evocative that one cannot help but dream along to its swirl of memory-summoning tones. No one needs actual drugs when one has the eerie whistle of a thereminh rising over the synths and shimmering guitars of “My World”. If that song doesn’t send a thin blue chill up your spine, then maybe you should consider drugs.
To wrap it all up, these two albums are Must Haves. There are few albums that I believe everyone on earth should own for the good of their souls and the delectation of their ears…but these two Scandinavian Pearls of Great Price definitely fit the bill. Especially if you dig relaxed, melodic, but inspiring New Wave music. Whitest Boy Alive and Husky Rescue embody every last drop of the spirit of the New Wave, crafting expert pop music that is good for both dancing and living-room listening, both intricate and simple, and–more than anything else–representative of all the best that such a musically-inventive region of the world can produce. Here’s to you, Northern Europe! May the aurorae light your minds forever!
(This article cross-posted at my music-only blog, The Spacing Guild Guide to the Humanities.)
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Make sure you snag a copy of their remix album, Other World. Usually, remix albums are nothing more than wanky excuses to offer up various terrible "dance" versions of songs that were perfectly good in the first place, but Other World is a fantastic collection of re-imagined songs from Country Falls. The remixes are actually re-mixes: completely different takes on the songs that create totally different vibes. It gets the Pegritz Stamp of Approval!
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