Anchorless - Settle with the signs

"Settle with the signs" is the lead single from Anchorless' upcoming full-length debut "Every nook and cranny", due out February 6 via PlayRec. Sounds like old REM to me which is not at all what I expected.

Obstacles working on new EP, Russian tour

Obstacles are working on a new 12" EP for release via PlayRec in the next couple months. Four songs supposedly showcasing "a new side" of the band, whatever that means. They're also heading over to Russia in mid-April for a string of dates:

04/14 - Squat Café, Moscow
04/15 - tba Moscow
04/17 - V-Club, Saint Petersburg

Bjørst to PlayRec

PlayRec has announced the signing of Bjørst and will be releasing their debut LP "Blandt de levende" on May 2 with a record release show celebrating the occasion on April 29 at Raahuset in Copenhagen. Hear a few sample tunes at SoundCloud: http://soundcloud.com/jkrogholt/sets/fg-1/

MP3: Trust - Battle rattle

There's more than a few bands who call themselves Trust, but only one of them is a gnarly math-rock band from Denmark. Forget the French thrashers, the Canadian synth act or whatever other variation might pop in your head because none of them will be covered here. Much like their PlayRec labelmates Obstacles, Trust excels at matching their instrumental acuity with heaviness and melody and comes out sounding very similar to two excellent bands local to me: C Average and Helms Alee. The former is an obvious comparison due to the drums + guitar duo format (stir it up, add plenty of octave pedal), but it's those soaring vocals and epic riffs that really make the band and are far more comparable to the latter. Similarily, I can only presume that they are likewise underrated, as these kinds of bands so often are. Get through the flurries of notes and take note of what you find on the other side!

Trust - Battle rattle

Obstacles
Dividual
PlayRec

With very few exceptions, purely instrumental rock albums get very tedious very quickly, often highlighting the importance of the vocal element in adding an extra, somewhat essential, dimension to the overall experience. København's Obstacles fall somewhere between exposing this shortfall and revealing that the inclusion of a singer isn't as important as some may think. The album displays an insane amount of technical wizardry, falling in and out of rock and free jazz, at times sounding like an intense math-rock jam session. Closing track "Locomotive" is where "Dividual" both rises and falls. Featuring the only vocal performance on the album, it makes it very clear that the music Obstacles plays benefits greatly from having a singer -- in this case Henrik W. Hald of Trust and Rising fame -- in the fold. His inclusion offers a distinct Mastodon vibe and shows, undeniably, that this is a band who has the potential to reach a level of appreciation that will escalate them to a greater international recognition. The music is of the same style as on the rest of the album; it's just that where the other, voice-free, tracks often wind up sounding a little too much like fret-wankery of the highest order, the vocal addition gives us something additional to concentrate on, resulting in a greater, true appreciation of the musicianship on display. There's great potential here. Whether or not the band decides to capitalize on that is entirely up to them.
- John Norby

Menfolk
Beast one / Man nil
PlayRec

There's nothing at all conventional about this Danish quartet and it's for this reason that they will appeal to pretty much anyone who likes their music to force them to think once in a while. It's not that Menfolk are overly complex, or even that they're difficult to understand; rather they are just quirky as hell right across the board. Odd song structures benefit from an odd overall sound, and this is mainly down to the band's ability to think outside the box in all aspects of their craft. Norway's maestros of all things bizarre -- Virus -- spring to mind on occasion, although Menfolk don't offer quite the David Lynch-type headfuck that Czral and his cohorts manage to muster. Instead they combine the essence of that eerie complexity and blend it with a more simplified structure akin to Rage Against the Machine and Fugazi. A simplified complexity, if you will. That might sound like a bit of a contradiction in terms, but after one spin of "Beast one / Man nil" it all makes sense. Sort of. Hell, these guys don't even approach instrumentation in a conventional way, opting to bookend the crunchy drive of one guitar with the pummelling detonation of two basses. It definitely works wonders for the sound which, while hinting at the aforementioned acts, comes across like a punked-up Primus meets a funked-up Fudge Tunnel. While the musicianship is spot on the money, this is quite a noisy release, where guitar feedback, although kept in the background, serves as a deliberate structural component. If there's one gripe about this album though, it's that the passages where single notes (rather than chords) are played on the guitar sound a bit too watery. It's a shame, since the chords are absolutely monstrous. A great second album with little in the way of flaws and heaps in the way of punk attitude.
- John Norby

Menfolk - Rubato (con song)

PlayRec have added another new track from Menfolk to their myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/playrec
"Rubato (con song)" might just be my favorite song from their upcoming record "Beast one/man nil".

Anchorless signs with PonyRec

Anchorless, the new band from ex-Lack members Jakob Nielsen and Jacob Johansen, have been picked up not by PlayRec as I would assume, but by the similarly-named PonyRec. Look for their self-titled debut EP in April.

PlayRec signs Obstacles

PlayRec has officially signed Danish instrumental/noiserock act Obstacles, a fact that shouldn't be too surprising if you read the label's "Top 10s for 2009" list. Look for them to release the band's debut full-length in August.

New songs from Achorless

Anchorless (ex-Lack) are streaming a couple more new tracks at myspace from their upcoming EP: http://www.myspace.com/anchorlessdk
Still no word yet on when it's coming out or on what label (PlayRec?), but I'll keep you posted.

Stream Lack's final record

Lack's final album "Saturate every atom" was released two years ago and their label PlayRec has commemorated the occasion by posting for streaming at SoundCloud: http://soundcloud.com/playrec/sets/lack-saturate-every-atom

Lack
Saturate every atom
PlayRec

Lack is easily one of the more interesting indie rock acts out there right now. Going from clarity to clarity, I thought that "Be there pulse" (2005) was an excellent display of Fugazi-sounding hard-hitting rock, they now release a breathtaking album of furious and melodic punk-/indie rock. In fact, the Danes have found what I've been looking for in their previous albums; a delicate mix of hardcore and hooks. Not many bands accomplish that, At the Drive-In, Refused, Drive Like Jehu and Shellac did it, and here are the Danish heirs. Clocking in under an exemplary 30 minutes "Saturate every atom" offer its listeners a concise journey where Denmark's asylum policy, male domination, among others are matters of discussion and as an old hardcore dude, my eyes are filled with tears. It's been a long time since something this compassionate sounded this good. Produced by Per Cnöeldh (Menfolk), mixed by Lack in true DIY-style and mastered by none other than Bob Weston from Shellac, the simple, yet powerful sound gives the band justice. And speaking of justice, nothing would be more unfair if this doesn't lead to further recognition. It is that good. Try it, you'll like it!
- Jonas Appelqvist

Barra Head
Go get beat up
PlayRec

Much like fellow labelmates Lack, this is driven, ambitious and conscious indie rock. The first obvious difference between the two is that Barra Head has a softer approach. The press release describes the band in an apt choice of words; "half a disciplined dance, half a raging battle between instruments." I hear traces of diverse acts such as The Afghan Whigs and Dismemberment Plan which, according to me, are influences to die for. And Barra Head are well on their way to stardom with a record that is kind of complex in its simplicity. Apart from a few songs, these are not tunes designed for the radio or hitlists; they are the kinds of songs that catch hold of you if you let them. The major part of "Go get beat up" is executed with a distinct and introverted feel to it, while some songs are more direct, aiming for the gut. I wish that they had more of the latter, especially since the band does it so well! Producer Tim O'Heir (!) has connected the dots on this one, seeing that their previous releases were a bit incoherent. This is the best this band has ever done.
- Jonas Appelqvist

Hell on Wheels
The odd church
Hybris/PlayRec

Add my voice to the chorus singing the praises of this record. Everyone else compares them to the Pixies, but to these ears they're more reminiscent of sounds a little earlier in the 80s -- the off-kilter yet powerfully melodic pop of the Go-Betweens circa 1983-1985 where dischordant notes careened off of one another, time signatures shifted mid-song, and what seemed at first to be quasi-random messes revealed themselves on repeated listenings to be nuanced, intricate, and brilliantly crafted. Not a note on this record is where you expect it to be, instruments and vocals (both male and female) play off one another as much as they play with one another. It's unsettling and subversively catchy, intellectually intruiging and gut level appealing. Highly recommended.
- Nancy Baym

Monoton
Greenwood
PlayRec

Monoton, for all intent and purposes, should not have finished "Greenwood". The band lost their singer, Morten Havn, following complication after a surgery, right after almost finishing an Albini-produced sophomore album. After rebuilding themselves and the band, they reconvened with Søren Vibjerg to finish that damned sophomore album. The results are good, if not very good. Their brand of slow, heavy and country rock reminds oneself of some of Nick Cave's output or Johnny Cash's American recording series in which the legend managed to create the heaviest material of his career by stripping things down to its bare essentials. Monoton use a similar technique by relying in elongated chords, ringing bass notes and 3 note leads to create some very interesting music. The only problem I have is Vibjerg who tries way too hard to be dark and uses a deeper voice than he is able to. His voice sound way too forced for this to work properly. You can imagine Till Lindemann of Rammstein doing this perfectly, but Vibjerg is just unable to achieve it. Still, pretty enjoyable.
- Simon Thibaudeau