Efterklang - Parades

You can thank Bjork. Because of her musical antics--as well as those of other Icelandic bands like Múm and Sigur Rós, Norway's Röyksopp, and Sweden's The Knife--there's a certain sound one now associates with the majority of Scandinavian alternative music. That frosty tinkling from that far-off land of ice age remnants tends to conjure images of fur-clad musicians clanging together instruments fashioned out of icicles and snowballs--whistles and wails chasing flurries and gusts up the sides of icebergs. It's all, for the most part, heavily glacial and coolly detached, and even when the beats anchor the tune to the dancefloor or the background vocals swoop in like a chorus of tiny angels, there's either an aloofness or quirkiness that grabs you while still keeping you at arm's length. It's gorgeous and often overwhelming, but even in the embrace of an opus like "Pagan Poetry," the track's sentiments belie the sense that you're making love to a robot with an internal combustion engine for a heart.


And you wanna know something else? Unless it's a duo or just one artist, no one ever knows exactly how many members are actually in most of these bands. Efterklang is no exception. Up until this point, the Danish group had, ok, five official members? Plus one guy who does accompanying films and visuals. Plus at least two other people who joined them regularly while touring in support of their ambitious 2004 debut, Tripper. That album, by the way, was the fastest-selling album in the history of The Leaf Label, and deservedly so. Its computer-guided melodies and bit-gilded strings stuttered their way throughout Denmark and across the pond, creating ripples and flooding American college radio airwaves the following year. Tracks like "Swarming"--whose video was directed by Karim Ghahwagi, that visuals guy--introduced us to a band capable of more than whispering and ringing bells.


At any rate and on all counts, all bets are off with the release of their new album, Parades. The glitchy atmospherics of Tripper are still there, but rather than forming a base for the band's music, the electronic elements have been allowed to float over the top, touching down occasionally with clicks and pops here and there. Acoustically-based performances, like the epic opener "Polygyne," build momentum and bloom into fully-formed productions whose exaltations challenge even the most majestic of post-rock outfits (hello, Godspeed!). A full orchestra and backing choir stomp and glide along with the warm male-female vocals now familiar to most fans of the band, and even the synthesized flourishes seem to develop organically, floating in and out of the mix like ticker tape.

MP3: Efterklang - "Polygyne"

And much like an actual parade, each track on the album approaches you from somewhere out on the horizon, bowling you over with fanfare and fireworks, then marching away to the echoing of Sousa-sized strains. Lead single "Mirador" floats in with fluttering harps and pianos that open up to Matterhorn crescendos, then back again. The accompanying video--a sort of pinball-countdown-goes-north-pole affair--is as mesmerizingly surreal as you'd expect.


MP3: Efterklang - "Mirador"

Much of Parades recalls Arcade Fire or Sufjan Stevens' more bombastic fare in that every colossal action is met by an equal and opposite reaction. It also seems to happen subconsciously. Towards the end of the album, when the marching band thundering of "Caravan" flows gently into "Illuminant," you forget (if you've been good and allowed the record to play through in its entirety) that the whole thing consists of 11 different tracks rather than one homogeneous behemoth. Musical experiences like that are few and far between.

MP3: Efterklang - "Caravan"

Parades took a full 18 months to record, and it shows. The music moves like a glacier, sliding smoothly at times and landing with a series of booming cracks. This isn't just headphone music. With its soaring orchestral movements and crashing drums, it's music for loudspeakers and concert halls. It's a cadence for a march of millions. Efterklang haven't just created an amazing album here--with an earth-shaking spirit that all but sends you into cardiac arrest, they've composed a soundtrack for a revolution that will melt the icecaps.

Copycat Sunday #1: Britney Spears

Say what you will about Britney Spears, but it's impossible to deny the space she occupies in popular culture. Whether it's a voyeuristic disgust of her downward spiral or a genuine veneration of the python-wielding diva of yore, there's an undeniable magnetism there that propelled her from teen-pop stardom to intergalactic phenomenon practically overnight.

MP3: Britney Spears - "I'm a Slave 4 U"

I don't know about you, but that night six years ago when she performed "I'm a Slave 4 U" on Letterman? Granted, it wasn't so much the performance as the relatively minimal sound that surprised me, but it was different enough to be interesting and, frankly, I dug it. The Neptunes were at the height of their production game and, in terms of mega-pop, it was as cool as anything they'd ever done. Something about the song, though, seemed oddly familiar. I didn't catch it right away--chances are most people still haven't and probably won't--and while modern pop isn't exactly known for its musical and thematic originality, the samples on which "Slave" are based are as surprising as the sultry persona assumed by Britney at the time.

MP3: Matmos - "Lipostudio...And So On"

In March of 2001, seven months before the release of "Slave" as a single, San Francisco-based electronic duo Matmos released their fourth LP, an experimental concept album titled A Chance to Cut Is a Chance to Cure. Created around the recorded and manipulated sounds of plastic surgery and medical procedures, the album is, despite its gimmicks, pretty great stuff. It's at times even beautiful and, given the subject matter, surprisingly approachable (provided you don't think too hard about the way it was made). "Lipostudio...And So On," for all its groovy slurps and organic squelches, is practically pop already. With a little beat adjustment and some heavy editing from Pharrell and company, the dizzying track becomes a suitably pornographic backdrop for Britney's breathy advances.


But the idea of sweaty bodies writing together to the sounds of body fat and other fluids being sucked through tubes? It's not all that sexy. That's likely why Britney's camp acknowledged a more obvious sample of Vanity 6's "Nasty Girl" on "Slave," but "Lipostudio" has always been Pharrell's greasy little secret. Little did everyone know that, eventually (sooner rather than later), the idea of Britney Spears being associated with a liposuction tube wouldn't seem all that unattractive after all.