join me in anticipating musics by FEVER RAY (aka one half of the knife)

because the single 'if i had a heart' is really good.

y

ah. Didn't know this thread existed. Just posted this in the Knife/Silent Shout thread:

Tomorrow: digital release of the album.
Samples @ amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001OBOZ6O

and the video's online too: http://www.feverray.com

Don't listen to those samples, they suck & you totally get the wrong impression about the songs

so what's the album like then

More beats than you would expect from those samples, but not as dancey as the knife - the single is a pretty good representation, I'd say.

is it the handle or the blade?

/dadjoek

this is pretty fuckin epic.

Aye, it is.

Fantastic record. Slim odds anything will top it for me. So I guess I can just ignore the rest of 2009; that was fast. . .

Artists like this who're drawing from a deep musical well but don't come across as especially "indebted to" or even influenced by particular musical heroes/movements/etc. always impress me. They remind me it's possible neither to rehash nor attempt to reinvent the wheel, if your songwriting and sense for production is strong enough. I'm not saying I even dislike things that wear their influences on their sleeves--a well-done revival isn't an oxymoron to me (like Glass Candy, for example). The Portishead album from 2008 almost had that feeling, but occasionally you could really trainspot a "source" on a particular track. Unless you're just convinced any woman with a slightly odd voice and a trans-European accent sounds like Bjork, The Knife and now this just begin to transcend.

obviously the brother is not a necessary element of the knife. did karin dreijer do the music?

what i mean to say is that this may as well be a knife album. karin is the one who sends chills down my spine.

What a divine january surprise this is !

this is way awesome. My sexist assumptions that Karin was just responsible for the vocals and Olof did the snyths, beats and programming seems to have been way off. Drum programming seems a bit simpler, but maybe just a stylistic choice. Music is as atmospheric as any Knife stuff. Track 2 reminded me slightly of Studio!

probably just the guitar, but whatever.

Digging the pan pipes on "Keep The Streets Empty For Me"

haha one time i was watching that horrible terrible indie video show on the nyc channel and they were playing videos then asking school children what they thought - one kid said abt the knife "is this real music"

haven't put the cd on yet but the single is quite something.

Artists like this who're drawing from a deep musical well but don't come across as especially "indebted to" or even influenced by particular musical heroes/movements/etc. always impress me

i agree - so many try to give this impression but there are so few who genuinely do seem to be complete one-offs, and the knife (or maybe karin dreijer) definitely fit.

re: production, it seems half of it is by christoffer berg and half by van rivers & subliminal kid (haven't heard those names before but berg apparently mixed the knife's work).

oh and since silent shout karin had her second child.

here's a myspace for 'the subliminal kid' profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=19900707 (can't listen, i'm at work)

was nervous, because uh http://www.djspooky.com/

Fuck Buttons remix of If I Had A Heart

http://putonyoureargoggles.blogspot.com/2009/01/fever-rayfuck-buttons.html

I am actually getting really psyched for this.

This is pretty awesome. It excised all the stuff I didn't like about the Knife, so I actually like it.

i've listened once through, not closely enough, but i enjoyed it a lot. to me the thing that seemed to be lacking compared to the knife was something about the sound design maybe? but the basic songwriting was really really great.

"who're"

Dont know about the music, but the video for 'if i had a heart' is amazing:

Wish she did a video for every song on the album, then I might appreciate bit more what she's doing in there.

The album's sound made me remember Bel Canto's debut album, can't exactly put my finger on what it is

so far I am liking this much better than The Knife (who always sounded a bit cheesy to me)

this album is affecting me in kate bush-like proportions

some songs could be on the dreaming

that's exactly what i thought! and i never really listened to the knife.

don't enjoy this as much as the knife, and as said above feel there's something lacking possible sound design or whatever (there's not much automation going on). Also possibly a bit more monothematic than the Knife's albums.

but still awesome.

less arpeggios than silent shout, less pop than deep cuts

hooray/about time.. it's been three years since silent shout!

hooray/about time.. it's been three years since silent shout!

― poortheatre

fuck sake time flies.

Damn this is good. Growing on me too, still

I'm pretty sure this is better than everything I heard last year (with, like, maybe the exception of the-dream, but i'm pretty sure this is even better than that album). So many textures and moods and hooks and sounds. I love her.

Kate Bush yes

listened again, and while a lot of it was really, really great, i still found it to be a little flat overall. certain parts (mostly vocals) risk becoming overused and gimmicky on this album, whereas i never would've thought that about the knife. that's not to say i don't enjoy it, i think i haven't listened to it in the right mood yet, so i don't wanna be too hard on it.

I'm really, really enjoying this album. It sounds so lush, so rich in mood and atmosphere.

I think I can see why later aprpeggiator finds it "a little flat", or 'samey', perhaps, but right now that's just a huge plus for me. The sound just flows and flows, and there are no musical 'thorns' that suddenly break the spell.

Yeah, I hear "unified" here, not "same-y"

man, this is h u g e

i am loving more and more, esp. the final 'keep the streets'/'coconut' couplet

listened to this again and am enjoying it a lot more after i stopped comparing it to the knife

the guitar on this is really nice

first song is amazing. enjoying it so far (halfway through)

i think coconut is my favorite song on this right now

this is truly dope

i'm not hearing any differences between a Knife album and this, which isn't a bad thing necessarily. not sure why they felt the need to use a different name for this. great album though. i'm on my 2nd time through and haven't heard a bad track yet.

same reason imagine isn't credited to the beatles, i imagine.

so massive

so she did the music to this without help from her brother or whoever does the music for The Knife? this sounds exactly like the Knife.

i guess it's like Peter Hook w/ Monaco doing What Do You Want From Me and Shine, which both sound just like New Order songs. oh well, doesn't matter who did the music, this album is fantastic.

maybe she did the music - women can create music beyond singing yknow

sure they can

orly? i had no idea since i'm a huge woman oppressing asshole.

the point is, this sounds EXACTLY like a Knife album. there are no songs here that sound different to anything that the Knife have released at this point. even without the voice, this would be identifiable/sonically linked to a Knife album.

therefore...

i see The Subliminal Kid gets a credit but i'm assuming it's not DJ Spooky - That Subliminal Kid.

"that"

re: production, it seems half of it is by christoffer berg and half by van rivers & subliminal kid (haven't heard those names before but berg apparently mixed the knife's work).

― lex pretend, Wednesday, January 14, 2009 6:03 PM (6 days ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

the knife is two people. this is one of those people. that's why it has a different name.

i'm going to use This Subliminal Kid as my new DJ/MC/Producer name!

there are no songs here that sound different to anything that the Knife have released at this point. even without the voice, this would be identifiable/sonically linked to a Knife album

maybe karin just likes those sounds, whether working with her brother or not. i think the songwriting - what i've heard of it - is a lot more intimate than the knife's stuff.

or maybe personal is a better word, not so much hiding behind theatrical masks and so on

@cutty - clearly this 1 has all the talent.

the point is, this sounds EXACTLY like a Knife album. there are no songs here that sound different to anything that the Knife have released at this point. even without the voice, this would be identifiable/sonically linked to a Knife album.

― brotherlovesdub, Tuesday, January 20, 2009 11:15 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

when people make solo albums they sometimes sound like their band. they do not necessarily credit it to the band. do you see?

p.s. i completely dispute your premise that this sounds exactly like the knife.

xp, tell us more about how this album was recorded and who does the work! you seem an expert.

i'm laying down eating snow
my fur is hot my tongue is cold
on a bed of spiderweb
i think of how to change myself

-----

i can't wait to hear this at home on the stereo

ok, fine, everyone else is right and i am wrong. i can accept this since it wouldn't be the first time i was wrong.

the writing credits are in the PDF included with the download

the guitar on this is really nice

― caek, Tuesday, January 20, 2009 10:44 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

otm...kinda reminds me of the guitars on West Coast in some places (jeez not everything etc etc).

lex also otm re: intimacy. i love how the vocals have been recorded: you can hear her breathing in, you can hear her mouthing the plosives, all that shit.

this is massive!!

lyrics are less good than knife stuff, i think. not enough darlings slain.

but dear me, it's a wonderful album.

"dishwasher tablets"

LOVING "Triangle Walks" ON REPEAT

was just going to mention that dishwasher tablet line - she'd never mention that in the knife!

she mentions some pretty prosaic stuff in forest families, and I feel like this album is an extension of that song

Love the single/video, definitely has the feel of an album opener, sort of low-key. Yeah, looking forward to this.

Just realised this is the first time the sounds-like-Bjork association (which would rarely if ever bother me if true) makes sense to me. Though weirdly here it's through the lyrical content somewhat, not the "general European-accented quirky woman voice singing over electronics" similarity. That "dishwasher tablet" line in particular, the leaps from the mundane to the dreamlike--reminds me of the great Bjork b-side "Domestica," but the more depressive counterpart of that track's manic personality.

Again, for me this doesn't diminish it in the least. It's certainly not as though the Knife is aping anybody.

I think Karin's lyrics have sometimes tended toward the mundane at least since Deep Cuts. I like how she mixes surreal and mundane to create an unsettling feel rather than simply whimsical, they re-contextualize things to make them seem more sad/absurd/creepy, though they do risk becoming a little more twee on this album. She seems concerned more with the weirdness of technology and modern society than with pure fantasy, which is really appealing to me (cause life is weird enough, amirite?)

The moment when her voice is completely bare of effects on Keep the Streets Empty For Me is incredibly beautiful. The nakedness of her voice is much more striking to me than the lyrics. I think she does this on one of the tracks on Deep Cuts as well.

The most Bjork-y part of the album to me is probably the tone of her singing on When I Grow Up. The most Kate Bush-y part is probably those little yelping synth sounds on Triangle Walks, also there are some other sounds that remind me of King of the Mountain. The feel of the moment on I'm Not Done when the bassline comes in also reminds me of Kate. But of course this album sounds way more like Karin(/the Knife) than anyone else.

The moment when her voice is completely bare of effects on Keep the Streets Empty For Me

"vocals on track 9 by Cecilia Nordlund"

( http://www.cecilianordlund.com/ & http://www.myspace.com/cecilianordlund )

(Actually, it's Karin/Cecilia ("I learned to not eat the snow")/duet)

this is good...video for the single fits so perfectly.

i love this album. it's easier to listen to in full than any of the Knife albums. the highs aren't as high but it's quality all the way.

i like this a lot. the video is incredible. it's just too bad the name makes it sound like a psychobilly band.

yeah I like this a lot and it def. has a similar palette to the knife stuff but it def sounds v.distinct and unknifelike to me

interested to see if I come round on this like the last album (i think I really disliked at first) 'cos I'm underwhelmed on first listen. I can hear a lot of Kate Bush in this too, but in a "so what" way really. Feels like a whole album of the boring parts of Silent Shout :/

'Silent Shout' was a slow burner for me, too, because I think I was so enamored of their poppier side. But this one hit immediately for me.

it's just too bad the name makes it sound like a psychobilly band.

straight lol

I'm not really sure why I LOVE this album while I always found The Knife irritating (in twee-scary way)

Sounds like you might be due for a re-appraisal, then? That could be a thrill--to suddenly have three great albums "click" at once. . .

raddddd album

yeah this is good

sick cover art too (charles burns? or his style at least)

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61tiwdQGSZL._SL500_AA280_.jpg

actually i drew it

awez a+ job dude

Like it says in the artwork/booklet pdf that was included with the release when you bought it: " Artwork by Martin Ander. http://www.mander.nu "

i'll buy the vinyl when it comes out in march. thx for being a dick though

Also unless my dl fucked up or something you don't get the artwork if you buy it from Amazon.

max can probably send over the originals... good work dude

Also unless my dl fucked up or something you don't get the artwork if you buy it from Amazon.

― Maciej (maciej recognizing trill), Saturday, January 24, 2009 4:33 PM (14 minutes ago) Bookmark

Sadly, I don't think Amazon ever offers the extras with their mp3 downloads. They are cheaper, though, so it kinda balances out.

yeah have to echo all above me great work on this max

thx for being a dick though

Didn't know about the Amazon thing, got it from clicktrack.com - and fuck you too.

the art, as drawn by ilx's own max, is just simply beautiful

(re: dick/fuck etc. - honestly though, did I miss something? what did I do?)

you disrespected max by not acknowledging what good job he did

OMG! Sorry max :-(
Well done though! Sue that other bastard!

I misread your tone, sorry dude, I had googled to tried and find the artist and your post came off as "just look in the booklet dumbass". guess i am mr. defensive today my bad let's squash the beef etc.

thanks for the kind words guys

max you can do better

i spoke too soon i guess

thank YOU for all the great art :)

very low key but very effective record....

COCONUT is an amazing closer.

No prob mdr, sorry that my tone could be misread that way. Peace!

(dmr)

didnt know this thread existed cuz i suck at searching for threads, amaaaaaaazing album though...
wish she would tour in the states

Srsly, I haven't liked an album this much for a long time. At first I was unimpressed, it was just quietly rippling intimate unassuming, but over more listens it has kept growing and growing.

And ILM's very own Max drew the cover, how awesome is that?

yeah, i wish i could take back any criticisms i made earlier in this thread. i'm now completely in love with this album.

good stuff

good stuff max

I agree, this is wicked.

That artwork is wicked max, whats your working fees? I intend to release my debut album in 2011 and I want you in.

whoa:

http://vimeo.com/3108686

<3

http://feverray.com/shows/

11th April Fever Ray in London The Royal Festival Hall
Time: 7:30pm. Admission: £20. Age restrictions: All Ages. Buy Tickets. Fever Ray will be supporting Royksopp

This has been my shit this winter, yall

this is pretty much my favorite album of the decade by now.

just listened to this for the 1st time. it's good, but nowhere near as immediate as deep cuts/silent house. songs are less distinctive & distinct from one another -- hooks (to the extent that there are any) are much more subdued, textural. so, a mood piece. a few standout tracks: "if i had a heart", "dry and dusty", "keep the streets empty for me". <333 "coconut" builds slow but pays off okay.

a lot of the rest is a bit too vague, tastefully atmospheric for my crude tastes. "i'm not done" actually kinda killed me with boring, even with only half an ear tuned. perhaps the whole thing will grow on me, but i dunno. i tune out quick.

i tuned out kind of quick on the first listen too. after being initially impressed, that is. but after a few songs, it sounded a little monotone, and she kept hitting those notes that she likes to hit. i should listen again tho.

Only half of it is actually good. I have never been able to listen to it completely needs more sounds on her palette.

wrong, listen again, wrong

think i agree with previous 3 comments - was v impressed when i first heard it, but it never hit me/sunk in as i expected to, 'if i had a heart' apart. i'm not done giving it chances yet though.

xp

wrong, listen again, wrong

^^^^ i think people who don't like this have bad/boring taste in music

that's funny, cuz i figure this record will appeal most strongly to people with fascinating opinions about "good taste" lol

not hating, but the A+ design factor is v high

are you talking about the cover illustration i did

nuh-uh. but cover illo is ACE and looks nothing like charles burns.

thanks

U rocked that cover, bro

that's funny, cuz i figure this record will appeal most strongly to people with fascinating opinions about "good taste" lol

― welcome little swetty (contenderizer), Tuesday, February 24, 2009 4:46 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

2nd mr. asada (who is good at tacos). got any other design/illustration stuff out there i might have seen, max?

have u heard of 'banksy'

...

max also does a stuff for the new yorker but that's mostly tv writing right?

max incorporates post modernism into all his works, or so ive heard

also by max:
http://www.unificationfrance.com/IMG/jpg/star_trek_gay_rick_berman_1.jpg

max did you draw that image that accompanied your column on NCIS?

yipes, missed the site link. dig the psych posters & skate graphics (plus everything, but esp those). an admirer

shucks guys yall are making my face red... thanks for the compliments tho

's cool, max! i'm a drawing geek, so geek i will. (working on biting gunsho ATM)

big fan max

On a thread where most people already said the album took a while to reveal itself, others still go "I listened to half of it once and all I liked was Max' cover" = WTF?

(Not dissing the Insane Max Posse here, Maxxalo love 4 life peace out etc)

umm, people having opinions, WTF?

yeah i think i had the same reaction as lex...found it interesting at first, really liked the first track, but ultimately liked it less and less with each subsequent listen. maybe it's just not what i'm looking for right now, i can give it another try in a few months. then again maybe i just have bad/boring taste

(I was talking about their lack of patience, xpost. They don't have to like it. :-) )

Well for me this is some sort of a light version of 'silent shout. They both came out around the same time of year and I remember being very interested and addicted with both at first before it started erosioning. Tho, Silent Shout started wearing off until April and 'Fever Ray' has worn off in less than a month for me.

obviously the brother is not a necessary element of the knife. did karin dreijer do the music?

what i mean to say is that this may as well be a knife album. karin is the one who sends chills down my spine.

Totally disagree - there's really obviously something missing here. That's not to say it's a bad record but it's got the same problem as The Eraser, when you take the seemingly most prominent member away from the joint creative spark that's responsible for their best work.

This is a much better record than The Eraser though, but it's very samey. That said, Keep The Streets Empty For Me is amazing, and I think I'd rather listen to that 12 times in a row than play the album again.

^ this, including streets empty love (though not limited to that track). most obvious absence is that of person who writes the catchy bits.

how do you know he writes the "catchy" bits and not karin, and maybe instead of his absence resulting in it being less "catchy" this is just an artistic choice by karin?

Silent Shout had catchy bits?

yes

silent shout was wall to wall catchy bits! pop tunes. ear candy with hooks. this is ear candy with, well, with fewer hooks, let's say. or less obvious hooks. and i don't know that this isn't an artistic choice on karin's part (last post was meant to come across a bit tongue-in-cheek). but if so, it's a perverse one

a certain sparkle seems to have gone into recession. i miss the seemingly effortless knack for jaw-droppingly perfect (pop) moments on display in deep hits and silent shout, and you know, it's tempting to speculate. "when i grow up", for instance, plays like "from off to on" with the genius excised

again though, "if i had a heart", "dry & dusty" & "keep the streets empty" are magnificent

Forgot to mention this earlier, but the video for "If I Had a Heart" is free on US iTunes until next Tuesday morning.

Love this album, especially in concentrated doses. Putting on "I'm Not Done" after sitting in relative silence for hours was an outstanding experience.

No mention of the "When I Grow Up" video? For shame! It's the same guy that did the Royksopp video with Karin and it's a beaut.

we share our mother's health is catchy in the most fucked sort of way, but i generally disagree with the above comment that silent shout had "catchy bits"

it's a mood album, it's not catchy

some conflation of catchy with dancey perhaps. that's the only thing "missing" from this virtual Knife LP.

i don't quite get why there are two singles with videos from this album already - neither really scream single to me (but then nothing from the album really does).

I posted it a couple of weeks back. yah, it is way awesome xxp.

'like a pen' is catchy and there are other bits on the album that are as well, but i think on a whole yeah 'silent shout' might be more about the mood than catchiness. which is fine, mood is underrated as a quality.

if someone asked you to describe the knife, would you say catchy and dancey? really?

@blueski

knife are totally an atmosphere band, but this seems to take that a little further

cutty not necessarily but as The Knife they do tend to deal in dancier, poppier terms and memorable patterns and hooks e.g. Pass This On steel drums, Like A Pen chorus

i can get behind those adjectives if you're talking about deep cuts. not silent shout, which is a difficult deep dark mood-hole of a record.

well you can still dance to half of it

yah it's def not as poppy as deep cuts but still

it fucks you right in your mood-hole

it's a headphone record. sure you can dance to it if you want. but i'd make fun of you.

wtf is this argument even about anymore? i love everything they do but i'll tend to prefer the stuff with overt/bigger beats

it's not an argument. it's a discussion. my main point is that so many people are critiquing fever ray as tuneless/hookless, like silent shout was a big dance party.

i suppose the difference between fever ray and SS is not necessarily the absence of beats and melodies, which were thin on the ground on silent shout, but the arpeggiator. e.g. I feel like forest families totally belongs on this album thematically but not sonically. also, this may be bullshit, but i guess the average BPM is higher on SS. i love both albums with the fire of one thousand suns, but there's definitely a qualitative difference between them. if people don't like both then their opinions are incorrect and what's next voting for nazis?, but i agree with them that SS and this have differences that are not negligible.

i think the bpm thing might be key - SS might not have been "catchy" or "dance party" per se (though at least three of its cuts were pretty ubiquitous in dance sets that year) but the tempo of the catchier tracks gave it an energy, a propulsion, which FR lacks. it's a qn of what FR brings to the table instead, and i'm still in the process of figuring that out.

i agree, plus, those slower tempos don't really waver much on FR

not many metal percussive sounds on FR gives it way less propulsion

it's like, i really love 'from off to on' and 'forest families' in the context of SS, where the catchier tracks provide a great counterpoint to them, but i'm not sure i'd really want a whole album of them, which is what FR feels like so far to me. i don't dislike any of it per se, it's a v impressive work...i'm just not into it.

don't forget na na na

Finally heard this, and it's excellent!

when i grow up on of the rare promo videos that actually makes me like a track more.

lovin that dude from studio's remix of when i grow up :)

oh man, i didn't get into that remix at all. it was like a studio remix distilled down only to the most typical elements with the vocals just kinda plopped on top throughout most of it. i really hate to dislike it, but yeah...

^kind of agree with this

but still happy to hear studio and so I dig it

I never thought I'd say this about a Knife-related release, but this sounds so much better in the sunshine.

I don't think I quite appreciated the first time round how some of the tracks seem to waver between warmth and ice - a bit of a push and pull between sunny Balearic sounds and dark Teutonic synthpop.

When I Grow Up and Coconut in particular have this real 'industrial goth takes time out to go and sit on a beach' feel to them.

I really love the artwork, Max, and I TRULY don't mean to be a dick here; I'm just curious - did they never mention Charles Burns when discussing the artwork? (Seeing as how the "Silent Shout" video was a total "Black Hole" homage, so I figure the Knife are into him)?

Either way, it's really great - and the cover is the reason I'm buying the physical copy instead of picking it up on iTunes!

Yeah, looking forward to a physical release. Somehow I've imagined it being white-on-black silkscreen in a matte black cardboard sleeve, but it probably won't be. . .

You asked for a non-shiny cardboard sleeve? Well, look what I got in the mail from bengans.se today:

http://i41.tinypic.com/tzhqg.jpg

http://i41.tinypic.com/10o0868.jpg

Enhanced CD:

I:\>dir
Volume in drive I is Fever Ray
Volume Serial Number is 51F4-3665

Directory of I:\

05/01/2009 14:51 103.849.072 If I Had A Heart, High.mp4
05/01/2009 15:15 38.851.518 If I Had A Heart, Low.mp4
2 File(s) 142.700.590 bytes

i wonder why the sunglasses

I got somethin' to say to you and you better listen -
i'm gonna tell ya how to be cool in one easy lesson:

sunglasses after dark

That looks great StanM!

What's with the 'high' and 'low'? Is it the video?

Yes, it's the video in two formats.

I love this album! can't wait for the physical release. this doesn't have the highs of Silent Shout, but it
seems more consistent. dark and moody without being depressing, beautiful melodies, great sound palette...
even the crappy mp3s have amazing depth.

Google translation of an interview in a Belgian paper today. Kiss, Tomahawk, The Knife. :-)

"Oer" cannot be translated, it seems ;)
She also mentioned Kiss in an interview with Groove. (mentioning that a friend of her daughter said "Geil! Your mother looks like she's in Kiss")

You asked for a non-shiny cardboard sleeve? Well, look what I got in the mail from bengans.se today:

Nice!

tempted to get this on vinyl

slightly surreal concert in Göteborg, Sweden, tonight. Karin Dreijer entered the venue in some sort of headgear, looking a bit like a mix of an uprooted tree and a bison head.

http://www.youtube.com/user/MaBelll

I'm actually enjoying this thing more and more. Getting a proper physical copy has made me hear so many more things. Amazing production

I called the record shop today, asked if they were getting it on vinyl, and if they could hold a copy for me :)

Album of the year.

So far.

yeah definitely album of the year. It keeps giving and giving

I want to like this but I'm definitely not feeling it. So yeah, great production, I love Karin's voice and beautiful videos... but nothing else. I think the melodies are mediocre, and the tracks I've heard so far consist of no more than a theme repeated over and over. What am I missing?

...actually the spooky vocal effect is kind of annoying too.

It's going to grow on you.

Also, don't get cardboard cd cases wet, they get deformed and horrible. I may even order it again since this cover was so nice and now it sucks so much :-(

:-(

Yeah it is def. a grower. The whole thing seems monotonous and austere at first but there is so much going on, esp. in the vocals (and I used to hate the spooky thing when the Knife albums came out)

I agree w/ david. I got to the fourth or fifth listen, then realized that while it sounded alright when it was on, I couldn't remember a damn thing of it when it was not. I decided at that point that it probably wasn't worth any more of my time.

This almost sounds like a sister album to Homogenic, albeit less pop and far, far darker. But similarly "homogenic" (lolz) and/or singular, all-encompassing in its mood.

A friend told me that you had to be a former goth to really enjoy this. Maybe she is right

Homogenic isn't completely unmemorable, though.

i've had songs from this going through my head for a month now

One of my favs of the first quarter of 2009. So simple yet so epic. Does anyone have a copy of the Hakan Libdo remix? i think i need that.

The "biography" section of her website is actually pretty interesting and explores the songs in detail:
http://feverray.com/biography/

I hadn't much thought of the motherhood aspect of all of these lyrics but it does make sense. It seems a lot of this album occurs at 4AM, outside in the garden of a country house, trying to be quiet cuz everybody else is sleeping.

http://pitchfork.com/features/interviews/7631-fever-ray/

I got to the fourth or fifth listen, then realized that while it sounded alright when it was on, I couldn't remember a damn thing of it when it was not. I decided at that point that it probably wasn't worth any more of my time.

I'm interested in this reaction. Sometimes I sort of like when I can't remember music when it's not on, because it can then be a nice surprise when I do put it on.

Gets better with every play - I'm really starting to appreciate the subtly changing colours to the whole thing, especially all those droney noises.

I haven't listened to The Knife that much, but I'm really digging this album. It's not a perfect masterpiece, but the moods and sounds on it are pretty unique. It's really hard these days to hear a record with no obvious reference points, so the way Fever Ray takes you into a sphere of its own is quite impressive. The only obvious comparison I can think of is Peter Gabriel's fourth self-titled album from 1982; both of them use nominally poppy/dancey synths and beats, but make them trance-like and somewhat scary, and the vocals sound more like chants than pop singing, and the whole thing feels like urban ritual music. I'm thinking that the album cover's resemblance to Charles Burns' comic art is not a coincidence: the whole record could be a soundtrack for Black Hole in the way it suggests creepy and at the same time fascinating things behind mundane surfaces.

Also, if people were expecting this to be a pop album then no doubt they were disappointed, since catchy pop hooks don't seem to be the point here. I'd say there are hooks though, but most of them are in the synth riffs rather than in the vocals (which I think are intentionally kept simple and chant-like). Just listen to the synth melody in "Seven", it's totally gorgeous!

you might have missed this, re: the cover art while you were on vacation, but ilx's own max did the cover art for this album

Okay, I didn't know that. Max, did Fever Ray ask you to do a homage to Charles Burns?

thanks, tuomas

Peter Gabriel's fourth self-titled album from 1982

??

peter gabriel's fourth album is entitled "security"

Good album. Favorite song is Keep the Streets Empty for Me. There is only one thing about this song I don't like, and that's that high pitched too-loud sound that bends at 4:21. Could have been so much more effective if was in the back of the mix.

Coconut is awes too

lol xps

favorite song is Keep the Streets Empty for Me.

that's mine too i think. i couldn't work out if it was just because it was the first one i caught the name of, because i subsequently liked all the rest a lot when i learnt the names. but there is something.

has the lp of this showed up in any stores yet?, imports notwithstanding?

peter gabriel's fourth album is entitled "security"

I was self-titled in Europe, but I think in the US it was called Security. My copy has no such title.

i'll have to ask max to speak to peter about this

Fever Ray is this month's CD in the Rough Trade Album club (and comes with a bonus CD of remixes by Fuck Buttons, one called "Van Rivers Dark Sails on the Horizon Mix," and one called "Remembered by the Subliminal Kid").

There is a leaflet/interview thing with it where she's asked to list her influences on the album. Some interesting choices:

1) Fugazi - "13 Songs" (!!!!!)
"A brilliant band, and a brilliant collection of powerful, emotional songs. It's real and honest and raw and angry but also sensitive and kind of bruised, not macho."

2) Tomahawk - "Anonymous"
"I think Mike Patton has been doing very interesting stuff for a while now, and this record was one we listened to a lot when we were finishing the album. It had a good impact on the record."

3) Fuck Buttons - "Street Horrsing"
"They did a remix of the first single, and I love it and I love this album, they are a great band. Very exciting."

pretty excellent show tonight (supporting also great Royksopp but FR have the EDGE). strict renditions from the album (which still hasn't engrained enough for me to recognise everything), but with added pretty lasers. was too high up to really see Karin and her band tho, and she only sang one song with Royksopp (Tricky Tricky) which was disappointing (Drecker sang What Else Is There and This Must Be It well but hmph).

i don't think you could see karin or her band from anywhere - you definitely never saw their faces. unless you got right up close to the stage, maybe. totally creepy and awesome. that gig pushed me off the fence into LOVING her music, anyway. i was wrong about not remembering any of it b/c i recognised every song within the first few bars. 'keep the streets empty for me' was incredible.

Saw her/them friday in Rotterdam - fantastic show. Shaded lamps + lasers + carefully placed mirrors = magic. Also the costumes looked great but it was a bit too dimly lit to fully appreciate those. Looked a bit like Pirates of the Carribean extras :)
They played two songs I didn't recognize (and I know the album by heart). One with a chorus with "I'm a stranger" lyrics (barely understandable through the vox-modifications) and a short piece near the end that was some sort of interlude I think. Highly recommended!

Ah, I just read a review that said they covered Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds "Stranger than Kindness".

That sounds great Willem, makes me feel even more sad I couldn't attend.

Was there a merch table?

there was at the RFH, half FR half 'Sopp

charles gibson introducing this fever ray segment is pretty hilarious. also the pictures moving to the music http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=7271349

Hey Gerard, too bad you couldn't make it, would've been great to get to talk again.

There was a merch table (Plato) and I had set my hopes on the FR LP but no... Just a poster, the cd and a shirt. Bummer.

You can tell that Gibson loathes introducing the weekly pitchfork segment in every bone of his body.

Ah, I just read a review that said they covered Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds "Stranger than Kindness".

really?!?! that sounds like possibly the best thing ever.

"Stranger than Kindness"

The instant I read this, I could hear it in my head.

I checked the lyrics and yeah that must've been the song I didn't recognize. From one of the Cave albums I don't happen to own. It was slow, sludgy almost (I remember thinking something like an industrial Dead Can Dance) - brooding.

xpost - haha. ^^does it sound like that? ;-)

it's maybe my favourite nick cave song. i gotta hear their version!

Hey Gerard, too bad you couldn't make it, would've been great to get to talk again.

There was a merch table (Plato) and I had set my hopes on the FR LP but no... Just a poster, the cd and a shirt. Bummer.

― willem, Sunday, April 12, 2009 6:49 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

Would've loved to have talked to you again as well man! (if I pm you through ilx, will it reach you?).
A 'Stranger than Kindness' cover... WANT.

There's not enough live footage of FR around on the internets. I did stumble upon this video though. Must be the YouTube version of fanfic, innit? Still, well played...

Ah, I just read a review that said they covered Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds "Stranger than Kindness".

Every fibre of my being is screaming for me to go 'lol goth' but actually, I bet that was incredible.

Not really recognizeable, but this sounds like it could be Stranger Than Kindness

yup, that's it.

wow that's my favorite Nick Cave song. When is she gonna do a proper tour?

last friday:
http://www.volkskrant.nl/multimedia/archive/00150/Fever-Ray_150678c.jpg

there was some...thing prancing around with what looked like some kind of staff. spent most of the set trying to figure that out.

some kind of pagan dance as in the wicker man?

I bought the album so have only heard it on my record player, and I have this nagging feeling that there's more going on sonically than is really take-innable in a house, with sounds floating through the air, intermixed with the activities and sounds of everything else. Does anyone think this is true? Have most of the rest of you mainly heard this on headphones?

Or alternatively, on a giant fuck-off sound system?

on good headphones it controls your mind.

but yeah, i get more out of this on headphones than I do on my (good) computer speakers.

maybe it's just because it's the most upbeat but 'Seven' is my favourite track on here

Scuba mix of 'When I Grow Up' is nice (ordinary 1 bassdrum per 4 beats dubstep tho)

I've been listening to this for a couple weeks on comp speakers, listening to it now stoned on new cheap headphones and it's so much more magnificent

Concrete Walls is so creepy when you listen to the lyrics:

"I live between concrete walls
when I took her up she was so warm

I live between concrete walls
In my arms she was so warm

Eyes are open and mouth cries
I haven't slept since summer

oh how i try
I leave the TV on
and the radio on"

lissvik remix of 'when i grow up' is great

not sure this will work

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=2342023&id=38532258901

this?

haha yeah ;-) - I wanted to post that creepy pic in that press clipping

this record is awesome

OTM. I don't think I've ever been as wrong about a record on initial listen - I now prefer it to Silent Shout I think.

that is as wrong!

Not been confirmed by the website yet, but apparently just been added to the bill at the Brighton Loop festival.

Kinda curious, but kinda broke...

playing in july at shepherd's bush

webster hall nyc this fall. no dates/tickets yet

I'll be at the SF show. Going to stare at the screen until the tix become available.

all north american tour dates announced,
http://feverray.com/shows/

counting the seconds until the tickets go on sale

jinx

kinda

sf tickets going on sale when?

dunno yet, but it's at the regency

the website for that place is bizarre. have you seen a show there?

agreed about the website, all ballroomish-looking, i've never heard of shows there

Saw MIA with Rye Rye there in 2005. Sounded horrible but I dunno if it artist or venue or both to blame.

I just got this and I'm digging it, but is there something wrong with me in that I don't really find anything sinister or scary about this?

1) ur a goth 2) have u seen the music videos

1) lol touche
2) nope

Electronic music scares a sensitive indie soul. (Or not.)

check out the vids dude

Yeah, there's a high quality version of "If I Had a Heart" on the CD. If that doesn't creep you out, nothing will.

I don't think Fever Ray is downright scary though, but there's some definitely creepy moments in the music, especially if you listen to the lyrics.

I just got this and I'm digging it, but is there something wrong with me in that I don't really find anything sinister or scary about this

this album is just ok (fine morning music, actually), but it's about as scary as runny mascara.

The bits of it that aren't creepy are actually quite warm and intimate in a weird way. Like being sung to sleep by a malfunctioning fembot from the future.

tix on sale now... see you in chicago!

wtf where?

nvm on sale sunday for SF

Top tracks:

"Seven"
"Concrete Walls"
"Keep the Streets Empty For Me"

honorable mention to the two singles and "Dry and Dusty"

i am all about if i had a heart, when i grow up, coconut, and keep the streets.....

very even album though.

Yeah, I wouldn't call any of the tracks weak.

So far this is my favorite album of the year.

Also I still don't get creepy from this; Matt's "love songs from a fembot" comment seems very OTM.

not listened to this much after enjoying it quite a bit at first. Seeing Fever Ray live later this month tho! :D

i sense some low-key domestic dread in a lot of it. not nec. creepy but definitely "unsettled"

my attitude to this is pretty much exactly like my attitude to 'Third'

Really? To me, Third sounds much sadder and more desperate than Fever Ray. Despite the latent creepiness FR is definitely more hopeful.

Yeah I can't really bear listening to 'Third' whereas this one feels like being slightly demented from lack of sleep, at 5AM in a cosy wood cabin.

I could listen to both endlessly (and have over the past week, interspersed with the new Prodigy and YYYs albums)

Yeah I can't really bear listening to 'Third' whereas this one feels like being slightly demented from lack of sleep, at 5AM in a cosy wood cabin.

interesting - i read somewhere (maybe upthread?) that karin wrote lots of the material when her kid woke her up at 5am and she couldn't go back to sleep

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Burns_(cartoonist)

"He produced the artwork for the debut album of Fever Ray."

WTFUUUUUUUUUUU?!

oops

Did you really think it was m

Yep, that's our Max's real name.

y'know, i did think it was a joke. but then it just kept going and it never really got funny, so i wasn't sure if it was just a bizarre joke or what. i figured either way my post could be taken as a continuation of the joke. but i just outed myself. no offense max, most of yr joeks are v funny.

i should've just said: did you really think i was serious lame-o?

It really sucks that Charles Burns is trying to take credit. He's already famous, why else does he want?

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_vcFl3uWi0KI/SKJxW6-LW5I/AAAAAAAAAY4/WSSricUSgGc/s320/jimmy.jpg

"Are you Fever Ray?"

WHO WANTS TO KNOW
WHO WANTS TO KNOW

i think wikipedia's right abt charles burns doing the cover art - http://www.mander.nu/?p=465

It's not Charles Burns, the illustrator is credited in the sleeve, it's some Swedish bloke. Unless Burns did the illustration under a Swedish pseudonym, which would be kinda odd.

woops sorry i meant 'wikipedia's not right...'

thanks for calling my art a "joke" karl

great to post on such a supportive board

Max, is Martin Ander your real name or is it just a pseudonym?

max, yr art is wonderful, even if it is a joke.

3rd single: "Triangle Walks"

I am kind of surprised it wasn't "Dry and Dusty" given the general accessibility level of the first two singles.

Triangle Walks is my 4th favourite thing on this (after Seven, I'm Not Done and Dry And Dusty).

I would've thought "Seven" was the next single, it's certainly the catchiest song on the album besides "When I Grow Up". Plus it's also the best song.

that she's even bothering to release at least 3 singles from this is kinda odd. for the record the album peaked at #90 in UK chart.

10 tracks = 10 singles = 10 videoclips = 1 DVD ?

(+ 2 or 3 remixes each?)

Yeah, it would be cool if she'd do an full-length movie based on the album, like Daft Punk's Interstella 5555. The two videos so far are so great I want too see more of that.

silent shout had a million singles too IIRC - obv she just likes making videos and getting remixes.

Couple of UK dates announced:

http://feverray.com/2009/06/05/uk-tour-july-2009-tickets/

Thanks for the heads up - will get some tickets for the M/cr show later.

Man this is a great album. I know I've been saying it since the beginning of the thread, but I still think it is.

Triangle Walks video (directed by Max)

http://vimeo.com/5215214

when is she gonna do a proper European tour?!

Looks pretty, but I think it lacks the cool visual ideas and hints of a larger backstory that made the previous two videos so good. The masks and costumes still tie it thematically to them, though.

I haven't yet seen Fever Ray live (can't wait until next month when both FR and Grace Jones are gonna play at a local festival), but from what I've heard those lamps also appear in their live show.

(x-post)

Dunno about an European tour, but she's been gigging actively, hasn't she? Her show in Helsinki next month is already the second one here since the album came out. Though of course the distance probably makes it easier to have gigs here.

rex the dog and karin should work with each other exclusively
together = gold. not together = hit&miss

http://www.prefixmag.com/media/fever-ray/triangle-walks-rex-the-dog-remix-radio-edit-mp3/29772/

is downloadble on popjustice: http://www.popjustice.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3762&Itemid=206

I don't know who's Rex the Dog, but to me that remix doesn't sound very good. He's basically just sped up the tune and added some extra drums and irritating electro whines there. It takes away a lot the mystique of the original but doesn't add anything particularly interesting or original to it.

Generally I'm all for dance remixes, but somehow I feel Fever Ray's tunes don't bend into dance tracks that easily. Especially if they're done in that irritating indie electro style.

I generally like irritating electro indie remixes, but I like these original tracks too much to want to hear them remixed. (Unless the remix would be excellent and completely different from and only use a tiny part of the original)

I don't know who's Rex the Dog

WHO IS REX THE DOG? (ideas, NOW)

Hmm, according to Discogs Rex the Dog is the same dude who did that "Son of a Gun" tune back in the mid-90s. That was a nice tune, but this one isn't.

A less obviously disco beat and I would be all over this like gangbusters.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Wednesday, 29 September 2004 02:45 (5 years ago)

What's that supposed to mean?

it means you posted in that thread you fake tuomas

You seriously expect me to remember every thread I posted to five years ago?

I didn't know who Rex the Dog was in 2004 either. Looking at that thread, I just made a couple of general comments about the anonymity of techno producers. If you can actually remember all the names of all the artists mentioned in all the threads you've ever posted to, good for you.

getting some chuckles from this:

He's basically just sped up the tune and added some extra drums and irritating electro whines there

Well that's what he did.

If you can actually remember all the names of all the artists mentioned in all the threads you've ever posted to, good for you.

i can and thank you

Okay, post them here.

usually i won't pop in a thread about an artist i don't know, or won't remember, or won't bother to actually seek out to hear what they sounds like, just to make banal comments and bring it up again five years later

Why can't I be serious? Call me an idealist, but sometimes I miss the days when electronic music had nothing to do with the rockist star cult, when all (well, almost all) that mattered was the music. I still don't know what most of my favourite artists look like. Or who they really are, for that matter.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Tuesday, September 28, 2004 12:45 PM (4 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

you are dropping fucking pearls of wisdom right there

I didn't bring it up, you and Sic did.

(xx-post)

I merely mentioned that I don't know who Rex the Dog is (which was true), but you had to bring up some 5-year old thread just to make a pointless snark at me.

some 5-year old thread about rex the dog

i didn't bring it up btw

I don't know who's Rex the Dog

WHO IS REX THE DOG? (ideas, NOW)

― cutty, 22. kesäkuuta 2009 23:54 Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i was merely pointing you to a thread of other people wondering WHO IS REX THE DOG?

Hmm, maybe you only linked because I mentioned Rex the Dog, and not to remind me of some posts I made ib 2004. If that's true, sorry about the above.

(x-post)

thanks for ruining the thread, guys

i thought we spiced it up with a little tuom-foolery

"I eat i eat i eat so much pasta basta i'm so full and yet so lonely"

haha the chuckles continue!

(ps. thanks for the link steve)

I still don't understand the goddamned deal with the artwork.

I think it's a woodprint.

...by Dan Clowes, right? Or Chris Ware? Or Tuomas? The mystery continues.

dude

max did the artwork

i'm getting a tattoo of it

wow thanks carne asada!

so is it a woodprint?

no its a tattoo

ah clever

nice work on the single cover too,max
http://feverray.com/wp-content/uploads/trianglewalks-artwork-360x363.jpg

wait the house is half submerged in water but there's still smoke coming out of the chimney? c'mon that would never happen

it would if the house is filled with dry ice

AH C'MAAAHHHHNNNNN

or the water has just reached the flames... could be steam

max can u weigh in

Or if that's not water, but oil. -> fire -> smoke.

The giant underwater flashlight shining upwards still works as well, so it's probably not water.

thats not steam its actually a fishs tale from the giant fish what leaped into the chimney

it's oil, look, all the plants are dead!

and the bird's feathers are all sticking together, which is why it isn't flying!

stan

did u draw the picture

i think not

duhhhhhhh

the giant fish what leaped into the chimney

serious lols

ok, sorry max - it's just that you've put so much possibilities into your art, it's hard for the viewer not to try and find their own interpretation:-(

what a disaster for the viewer

Tonight at the Shepherds Bush Empire! I am excited.

Saw her/them in Bristol on Monday, very good indeed.

jealous

Saw them live yesterday at a local festival, pretty cool gig. They started with "If I Had a Heart" and ended with "Coconut", and they didn't speak anything before or between songs, nor was there an encore. I thought that was kinda fitting, the gig was very intense and hypnotic, so shouting "Hello Helsinki!" or something like that between songs would've ruined the atmosphere. They just entered the stage in darkness, and left the same way. The stage was lighted with a bunch of flickering old lamps, and the whole band were wearing weird theatrical costumes thats could've been straight out of their videos. Their lighting choices made the costumes kinda hard to see, it took me half the gig to realize that the reason I couldn't see the guitarist/keyboardist dude's face was because he had some sort of black mask. Karin was wearing a very freaky, massive, shaman-like hood and cape, but you could only see it in flashes of light, so she looked more like some formless monster. I guess that was intentional, it certainly made the performance more creepy. Then at some point she took the cape off, and her face was painted white, except for a V-shaped black pattern in the middle. She shook her hands and body like she was in a trance or something, there was definitely some sort of shaman vibe going on.

The music wasn't that different from what's on record, but there were a few changes made to the arrangements and some new sounds added, so it was different enough to keep it interesting. They didn't play the whole album, but they did do two songs that aren't on it. One was more fast and aggressive than anything on the album, it sounded almost like industrial, and the other one was a stripped-down ballad that showcased what a great voice Karin has. I have no idea if these songs were covers or new material. I thought they weren't gonna do all those freaky vocal effects from the album, but they did, and they even added some new effects to a couple of songs; at some point her voice was ran through a a high-pitched filter that made her shriek like a witch. All in all I thought it was a very good performance, they've certainly taken some effort to make their gigs have the same sort of spooky and trance-like and evocative vibe as on the album.

yeah that's exactly how it went down when i saw them a few months ago. i was just frustrated because i was high up and far back and couldn't really see anything but the lamps and dope lasers.

Some people who'd seen their previous gig in Helsinki told me they have a cool stage show, so I got as close to the stage as possible to see them properly. I guess their gig is not very audience-friendly for larger venues and festivals, can't imagine people at the back seeing anything but light and shadows.

yea in london i was on the ground floor at the back + couldnt really see anything. also, the bass obscured a lot of the music :(

o and tuomas 1 of the songs they played that you didnt recognise was prob their cover of nick caves 'stranger than kindness'

It's kinda weird, obviously they've put a lot of effort into their costumes, but the lighting of their show doesn't really allow the audience to see them properly. Like, the percussionist was wearing some sort of a red cape or something, but you could barely see him. The only one you could really see was the laptop guy, and that's because the laptop screen provided some extra light for him. :)

i think the (lack of) lighting thing just doesn't work really - like you say why bother with costumes when most people can hardly see them.

I saw them in Brighton, and thought the low lighting made it all the more atmospheric. I did have a good view though.

I saw them at Bristol and was pretty much right at the front of the half-full venue. Didn't have a clue what that headdress looked like til I got home and did a GIS.

One of the musicians looked like one of Emperor Palpatine's sidekicks in everyone's favourite Star Wars movie, Phantom Menace. I remember her headdress being a bit like a West African/ Fijian type thing iirc.

lol yeah i thought exactly the same thing about the Star Wars look

http://cdn.pitchfork.com/media/feverrayseven452.jpg

from Pitchfork today:

Fever Ray's self-titled debut LP-- it's the gift that keeps on giving dark and dance-y goodness to the art-riddled goth in all of us. The Knife's Karin Dreijer Andersson is set to release her album's fourth single, "Seven", on 12" and digital formats on October 5 in the UK courtesy of Rabid/Cooperative. It'll be backed by remixes from "Day 'N' Nite" redoers Crookers, Brazil party starters CSS, Berlin techno dude Marcel Dettmann, D.C. click-clacker Martyn, Nic Chacona, Real Daniel, and Ghostly International artist Seth Troxler.

In addition, the Fever Ray album is being granted one of those instant reissues the kids are so crazy about nowadays. Fever Ray-- The Double Disc Edition hits October 12 and is padded with two covers-- Vashti Bunyan's "Been Here Before" and Nick Cave and Anita Lane's "Stranger Than Kindness"-- and a DVD featuring all of the album's superb videos thus far (if you haven't seen them, please do yourself a favor and head over to Pitchfork.tv right now) along with a new one for "Seven" directed by Johan Renck, whose music video resume includes Madonna's "Hung Up", Bat for Lashes' "Daniel", and Beyoncé's "Me, Myself and I". It should slay.

Fever Ray takes her heavily-costumed live show to North America next month. We can't wait. Dates here.

Posted by Ryan Dombal on August 25, 2009

That's a great cover. Looks like max's work, judging by the cover of "Triangle Walks".

good job max

there was also this:

http://www.deftp.co.uk/fever-ray/myspace/ifihadaheart_400.jpg

and

http://www.betterthandisco.com/articles/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/feverray.jpg

wow! that last one...

In addition, the Fever Ray album is being granted one of those instant reissues the kids are so crazy about nowadays.
I wonder if this is ironic.

And it's true these covers are all fantastic.

as always guys, thanks for the kind words

this just out:

LIMITED EDITION NUMBERED TOUR 7 INCH
Very limited edition numbered tour 7 inch.

Fever Ray with Van Rivers and The Subliminal Kid.
Contains two cover versions that Fever Ray perform on tour.

1. Stranger than Kindness by Nick Cave and Anita Lane
2. Here Before by Vashti Bunyan.

http://feverray.sandbag.uk.com/Content/26.jpg

the martyn remix of "seven" is so great, that bassline!

thanks baad, ordered the 7" right away

"Coconut" is a killer ending track, huh

this album is having a second wind for me - i'm pretty confident this will be my album of the year

I'm anticipating listening to this a lot as the nights start drawing in...

I am surprised that it's taken this long to release Seven as a single. It's a fantastic song, probably my favourite off the album.

Yeah, totally; I was convinced it or "Dry and Dusty" was going to be the third single.

Sweden. Fucking... Sweden.

They get Fever Ray, we get... La Roux and Florence and the fucking Machine.

My head is in a claustrophobic place right now that this album totally matches. I want to listen to this album when it's cold, all wrapped up in bed with the lights out.

This probably says more about me than the album (speaking of which, isn't she Finnish?) but I don't find it so much creepy or claustrophobic as I find it coldly comforting and wistful, dipping into whimsy from time to time; I have a similar reaction to The Knife, only instead of cold distance I get tons and tons of warmth.

She's not Finnish, she's Swedish. She's got a recognizable Scandinavian accent in her English that reminds me a bit of Björk's accent. A Finnish accent sounds rather different.

oops, I've been telling ppl the wrong thing for a while then

It sounds totally claustrophobic to me, but probably because the lyrics remind me of the desperate tweets of friends trapped in apartments with small children endlessly hungry and demanding attention and more more more. But that could just be me and my fears.

The 7" cover upthread is from a collection of photographs of the Kwakiutl and Navajo tribes taken by Edward S. Curtis around 1914. I love them, I uploaded almost all of them at flickr some months ago you can see them here if you're interested (mixed with a bunch of crap I thought interesting at the time: http://www.flickr.com/photos/11840520@N04/sets/72157601576405206/)

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3140/2652408564_ec937d726f.jpghttp://farm4.static.flickr.com/3283/2652407582_25fe3cbc0c.jpghttp://farm4.static.flickr.com/3264/2652408242_3dde8cda75.jpg

Max's covers are the best tho

Yes, the artwork is amazing.

I didn't know Max also shot Indians! Impressive!

that's how the west was won

the preferred nomenclature is "native american", tuomas.

Vashti cover live (via P4K):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UskaHWABWyc

Is this Max's work as well?

http://i29.tinypic.com/2zrgkf6.jpg

looks like it tbh, all the signature trademarks are there

the martyn remix of "seven" is so great, that bassline!

― lex pretend, Wednesday, 2 September 2009 10:00 (1 week ago)

bears repeating

http://i31.tinypic.com/10hm2yu.jpg http://i31.tinypic.com/10hm2yu.jpg

sorry :-(

suggest bearn

at this moment "Coconut" is the greatest song ever recorded

just for the record i never once shot an indian, or a native american

LOVE this. Still. Freezing cold but warmly enveloping you at the simultaneously.

Um. Try to not read that "at the" there :-)

Still one of the best cd's of the year. I've listened to this more now than "Silent Shout".

Front row at Webster Hall last night. Fucking amazing. The most inspiring thing I have seen in at least 3 years and probably one of the top 3 or 4 gigs I have ever been to. A LOT of other bands have a LOT to answer for. I mean, FR is an electronic act and yet the show, even just on a musical level, was more powerful than that of most bands, even though the latter have more flexibility in terms of improvisation, covers, etc.

As intimate as the music is, it REALLY benefitted from a large soundsystem. Granted, I was right in front of the subs, but that was the most bass pressure I have ever felt. The costumes, the lasers, etc., were really great, but I also appreciated the thirty of forty sticks on insence they lit. They really paid attention to all sense.

Anyone in NYC who can afford to take a few hours off from their day job (if applicable) should really try and go down there this afternoon and hang out. Most venues release tickets at the last minutes, even for sold-out shows. It worked for me yesterday, and I didn't have to pay more than face value (a little under $40).

seeing this tomorrow!!

jeez, I was a dick on this thread...

Just got back from seeing Fever Ray at Metropolis. Dead centre, maybe 10 feet back...WHOA. Loved the album already, but seeing them live completely transformed a lot of the songs for me. The incense and the smog created a murky and relaxed vibe that lent itself to a vague sense of menace at different points in the show. I didn't really expect the show to be capable of impacting me that much more than the album, but it augments the effect of the music in all the right ways.

REALLY benefitted from a large soundsystem. Granted, I was right in front of the subs, but that was the most bass pressure I have ever felt

OTM. The inside of my chest cavity was vibrating. It was incredible.

holy shit that rocked.

best visual presentation i've seen at a concert since daft punk rolled thru town. vintage lamps & lasers = GOOD LOOK.

I need to stop reading this thread - so jealous of all you guys

seeing her/them on Monday in SF! Serious question: Should I get stoned?

so psyched to see them

^ strongly considering going to this as well. and if it's anything even remotely like the knife's live show then YES you should get VERY stoned

To be honest I think the massive bass sound they used while playing live was kinda too much. It drowned some of the subtleties in their sound, plus if you were close to the stage you were forced to wear earplugs (a few poor folks on the Helsinki gig had come without earplugs, and they had to run much further from the stage when FR began playing), which made the sound even more muddled. Moving further from the stage wouldn't have been problem, except that their stage lighting was such that you had be close to it too see anything properly. So it felt they hadn't really thought about that aspect of their show. I could understand using those kind of bass frequencies if they were playing dance music where subtleties aren't that important, but with their type of music there was simply too much bass.

lol why would u NOT get stoned

Because any music sounds good when you're stoned, and I wanted to fully enjoy this particular music.

Plus I don't really puff these days, it's been over a year since I last did it.

damn I totally slept on seeing them at webster!

i thought the massive bass was amazing

and i also though you weren't really meant to see them clearly beyond silhouettes

blaming a show for having massive sound is kinda ridic imo

if you really want to stand close, get a good pair of fitted earplugs

if not, stand back

pretty simple

blaming a show for having massive sound is kinda ridic imo

I'm not blaming them for massive sound, I'm blaming them for emphasizing the lower register to such extent that it drowned part of the stuff that's happening in the upper register, even though the upper register is what's most interesting about them, not the bass. If I just want to experience massive bass I go to a drum'n'bass club. With a non-dancey synth pop act FR I was expecting something more nuanced, but the bass effectively dominated the whole gig.

i loved it, it was so unexpected and ominous! and it sounded so fantastic. horse for courses i guess.

i mean fuck i was HAPPY it didn't sound like a typical "non-dancey synth pop act"! it was different and awesome!

i hear where tuomas is coming from cuz it was sort of like that when i saw them - the bass meant i couldnt really hear any of the high end

i could

yeah i had no problems with the sound at the London show, i just couldn't SEE ANYTHING :(

i think i was standing in a bad place, shld have just moved

I saw Fever Ray in June and thought it was pretty terrible and the sound was ultra-muddy, was really disappointed. Otoh thought the Knife was an awesome show when I was them few years back.

lol saw not was

i was never The Knife iirc.

I'm blaming them for emphasizing the lower register to such extent that it drowned part of the stuff that's happening in the upper register, even though the upper register is what's most interesting about them, not the bass.

This is completely perplexing to me; the biggest thing I took from the Fever Ray album was that it was a collection of fragile songs perched precariously atop massive, throbbing bass and any live show that didn't emphasize that would be massively disappointing.

I saw the first night Webster Hall show and my mileage varied. Was not blown away and actually got pretty bored, but enjoyed the visual feast.

I'm not blaming them for massive sound, I'm blaming them for emphasizing the lower register to such extent that it drowned part of the stuff that's happening in the upper register, even though the upper register is what's most interesting about them, not the bass.

This is totally OTM-- the most significant of the obscured upper register being um er HER VOICE.

The most interesting and compelling vocal sounds on the album are the ones where she's shifted down into lumberville!

love this album more than ever lately but i NEVER seem to want to listen to the first two tracks :/

walked to work early this a.m. across 2 miles of german fields full of corn that was still high as an elephant's eye but dead, sun rising, pretty cold, this album playing. was amazing.

love this album more than ever lately but i NEVER seem to want to listen to the first two tracks :/

I often just play "Dry and Dusty" and "Concrete Walls". Maybe "Coconut" if I'm in slow-burn mode.

life swap y/n xp

I can never really listen to this album at work. It's an "under the covers, tucked in late at night" listen for me.

c. I remember so many people singing at the show that even if the sound was more balanced I still wouldn't have heard her voice.
a. I was totally going to spend all of my extra money to go to Chicago for the next show but, alas, it is not happening.
d. The whole show was an invitation to think that a show could be more than a show and I am glad I am not as jaded as I thought I was.
b. When I still thought I was going to Chicago the whole drug question came up but the thing is I tend to forget things (big surprise!) when stoned and I am glad I went sober. I can remember everything. Just putting on the record gives me flashbacks.

SF show last night was amazing soundwise. The bass wasn't excessive and didn't drown out everything else. If I can quibble, I think they tended to keep her voice in the lower register, for example keeping the "Dangling feet from windowpane..." vocals that are higher on the recorded If I Had a Heart with the same low, gruff effect that is on her vox from the beginning of the song. It lost some of that affecting contrast between her low and high singing. Also, no panpipes on Keep the Streets Empty! lol.

I could barely see what was happening on stage, mostly I saw the lamps, the synth player with his pagan priest hat, every once in a while saw Karin, like when she came to the front of the stage and did sort of the Roc-a-Fella diamond hand symbol. This was kinda disappointing, but my friend pointed out that if we had been up at the very front, we wouldn't have really seen the lasers, which were gorgeous.

http://superrevolver.dk/shaman.jpg

her voice is amazing live. one really gets just what a great instrument it is, even moreso than one would on record. fully convinced of her genius tbh.

In addition, the Fever Ray album is being granted one of those instant reissues the kids are so crazy about nowadays. Fever Ray-- The Double Disc Edition hits October 12 and is padded with two covers-- Vashti Bunyan's "Been Here Before" and Nick Cave and Anita Lane's "Stranger Than Kindness"-- and a DVD featuring all of the album's superb videos thus far (if you haven't seen them, please do yourself a favor and head over to Pitchfork.tv right now) along with a new one for "Seven" directed by Johan Renck, whose music video resume includes Madonna's "Hung Up", Bat for Lashes' "Daniel", and Beyoncé's "Me, Myself and I". It should slay.

Fever Ray takes her heavily-costumed live show to North America next month. We can't wait. Dates here.

Posted by Ryan Dombal on August 25, 2009

― Bee OK, Wednesday, August 26, 2009 5:02 AM (1 month ago) Bookmark

October 12th, right? Hmm.

Not saying it's not happening, but there's nothing on the site, no newsletter, nothing on the myspace. Never seen any official confirmation of this either.

posted today http://feverray.com/2009/10/12/fever-ray-the-double-disc-edition-out-on-october-12th/

headline says oct 19 though the url would beg to differ

Hooray! Thx!

Would be nice if the dvd alone was available though. Already own the normal cd and ordered the 7"... :-/

yeah, if I really like someone's work I will pay for it multiple times (see: The Cure, Siouxsie & the Banshees) so this doesn't bother me

I'll shell out again probably, but it does bother me. If only a little.

I knew this would happen, as happened with the Knife albums, so i've waited. Been burned twice before by The Knife. Def. looking forward to this reissue though.

I've been a bit disappointed by the two new videos, at least compared to the videos for "If I Had a Heart" and "When I Grow Up". The first two videos totally got you in the mood by implying there was backstory behind what was happening, and dropping ambiguous hints on that story made them all the more enchanting. But the two new videos, as cool as they look, feel like more traditional music videos, they just show Karin (and the band members) in odd scenery without any attempt to build a story. I have to give props for Karin for the way she looks in the "Seven" video though, that's quite exceptional! Anyway, I thought the new videos would continue on the story that began in the first video, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Maybe it's simply a question of budget, as it looks like the two new videos were made with much less money than "If I Had a Heart". I don't think I'll be buying this double disc version, especially since the original album already included the best one of the videos.

Video for 'Stranger Than Kindness', people who've seen the concerts will be familliar with most of the imagery.

Tags:

* Bird Masks,
* Fever Ray,
* Lasers,
* Music Videos,
* World Premiere

http://www.mediafire.com/?m2gwojmjjah

Fever Ray live

Dunno if this announcement is what's above but....

The Guardian has teamed up with Rabid Records and Cooperative Music to give readers a live version of the debut album by Fever Ray. Following an exclusive interview in Friday’s Film and Music section there will be a unique URL printed in Saturday’s Guardian that will allow readers to download the album. The album was recorded in Sweden on 28 March 2009.
Tracks included on the download are:

If I Had A Heart
Triangle Walks
Concrete Walls
Seven
I’m Not Done
Now’s The Only Time I Know
Keep The Streets Empty
Dry And Dusty
Stranger Than Kindness
When I Grow Up

Yes, it's the same thing. Entire show recording is only 20mins but the inbetween bits have been cut. Not sure if that link has all the tracks but it starts and ends with the same songs listed above. Soundboard quality.

ok, actually, i'm pretty sure its missing a couple tracks. only has 5 diff. tracks on the mp3 i posted.

http://feverray.com/guardian/

Damn, I got the Guardian today but I already own the album in CD form. Anyone want my key?