- -- Release information ----------------------------------------------- -- -
Artist : Highasakite
Album : Silent Treatment
Genre : Pop
Year : 2014
Label : Propeller Recordings
Cat# : PRR82
Source : CDDA
Bitrate : 241Kbps
Size : 90,80 MB
Runtime : 54:36 min
URL : http://www.highasakite.no/
- -- Tracklist -------------------------------------------------------- -- -
01. Lover, Where Do You Live ? 05:04
02. Since Last Wednesday 03:57
03. Leaving No Traces 04:21
04. Hiroshima 06:03
05. My Only Crime 02:55
06. I, The Hand Grenade 06:18
07. Darth Vader 03:30
08. Iran 04:07
09. The Man on the Ferry 04:07
10. Science & Blood Tests 14:14
- -- Release notes ---------------------------------------------------- -- -
Loved by Bon Iver, nominated at Norway's Grammys, they're like
Coldplay with a female singer, only better than that sounds.
Highasakite - who Justin Vernon invited on tour with Bon Iver
after being blown away by them live - are a Sundays/Smiths of
a Scandinavian indie-pop group, with a singer, Ingrid Helene
Hσvik, who tends towards the Bj÷rk/Lykke Li school of
idiosyncratic vocalese. The band formed after Hσvik met
drummer Trond Bersu at the Trondheim Jazz Conservatory and
began to write, record and perform together. The only other
band we can think of where the singer and drummer are the twin
creative forces are Metallica, and at a pinch the Carpenters.
Which makes us want to daydream that Highasakite are what
might happen if powerful bluster met serene melancholia.
Tthe music on their album Silent Treatment is a fairly richly
melodic form of indie-pop (although we had to Google to find
out what a flugabone is). There are some electronic touches,
and some folk, even prog, influences/elements. We can't hear
much jazz, but then Trondheim, to the best of our knowledge,
doesn't have a Prog-Folk Conservatory. Hσvik cites Mary
Margaret O'Hara, Fever Ray and Diamanda Galßs as some of her
favourite musicians, as well as those legendary Voix MystΦres
from Bulgaria, but really, Highasakite aren't that esoteric.
Weird lyrics, though. "Reference points [that] have helped
inform Silent Treatment [include] Hσvik's time in New York and
Istanbul," their press release explains, cryptically, adding
that "many of its themes exist in the realm of relationships
behind closed doors". The titles alone suggest those
relationships might not have been that cosy, but then, we're
talking about a band who opened their 2012 debut album with a
little ditty called Son of a Bitch. There are songs on Silent
Treatment called Hiroshima, Iran, Science & Blood Tests, Darth
Vader and I, the Hand Grenade. If they are songs about
relationships we're talking about a fairly advanced level of
metaphor being employed. We can't always make out their
lyrics, but certainly Highasakite know how to get your
attention - they could start an advice website for young bands
called arrestingopeninglines.com. My Only Crime starts with "I
dreamed I was a devil's child" while Darth Vader's opening
gambit is "I am a Philistine..." and Since Last Wednesday's
is, "He would never do graffiti or vandalise that house." Our
advice would be to seek marriage guidance.
The music ranges from the subtly atmospheric to the
bombastically rousing. Sometimes they sound like Coldplay with
a female singer, or Sigur Ros in a tussle with the Sugarcubes,
only not that good. Leaving No Traces moves at a gallop, a
canter, with a nagging (see what we did there?) chorus that
recalls Cranberries/All About Eve. If Highasakite had been
around in 1990, they would have been on the cover of the
Melody Maker every week. I, the Hand Grenade is the first song
we can remember written about a suspect device from the point
of view of the bomb since 10cc's Clockwork Creep. We were
going to say, don't come here looking for rapier wit and
chuckles, but then we listened to Darth Vader again. "I'm not
the real Darth Vader," it goes, "I'll slay dragons, too - doo
doo doo doo doot dooà I am a killer bee." We would recommend
treatment, silent or otherwise.
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KLV is a division of KALEVALA, focusing on all things non-finnish.