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

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.