New indiepop from Norway by way of perennial US-based label featuring members from Remington Super 60, Safariari and Elak Bingo. This is the group's very first song and plans are now underway to put together a full album.
Elak Bingo! Sounds like an affirmative statement of some sort, doesn't it? For me, it already is: I've made it a personal declaration to indicate when a new band successfully inspires that sense of wonder we all crave in music. Funny thing is, "elak" means "bad" or "mean" in Swedish, and this Norwegian female twosome are anything but. Instead, Elisabeth and Ann-Kristen generate one of the most charming, whimsical, unaffectedly childlike sounds I've heard in ages. They're getting attention with their MySpace profile, where you can hear four of the songs from this amazing demo. "Butterfly" (labeled as "Space park" on the disc the girls sent me) is the sweetest 90 seconds I've heard on MySpace yet; it utilizes the repeated single chirp of a bird, a dash of violin and softly feminine vocals to charm the daylights out of you. "Little birds round the tree/You and me," sings Elisabeth, and no matter how minimal the lyrics, the effect is serene and evocative. Elak Bingo are DIY practitioners all the way, so there's no real production, no grandiose intent. But in terms of sweet, unaffected joy of musical self-expression, these Norwegian girls are a sublimely engaging pair of songbirds.
- Kevin Renick