█████████████████████████████████████████████████ ░ ▓▓
██████████████████████████████████████████████████ ░ ▒▒
████████████████████████████████████████████ ░ ▒▓
█████████████████████████████████████████ ░▒ ▒▒
░██████████████████████████████████████▒▒▓ ▓
███████████████████████████████████████ ▒░
████████████████████████████████████ █
██████████████████████████████████▒ █
▓█████████████████████████████████ ▒
████████████████████████████████ ▒▒
▒██████████████████████████████ ▒█
█████████████████████████████ ▒█▓▒
████████████████████████████ ░██░
░█░ ███████████████████████████ ████
██████████████████████████▒ ▓████
█████████████████████████▓ █████░
█████████████████████████▓ ██████░
████████████████████████▓ ███████
███████████████████████▓ ████████▒
▓█████████████████████▒ ▓█████████
████████████████████░ ░███████████▒
█████████░██████▓░ ▒█████████████▒
██████▓ ██ ▒▒█████████████████▒
░█████ ███ ░ ░▒████████████████████▒▒
██████▒░█▒██░█ █▒ ████████████████████████▒
████████▒ ▓███ ████▓█ ██████████████████████░
███████ ▒ ░██░ █ ███ ▒███████████████████████
███████░ ▒ ███ █ ░██████████████████████████
████████▓ ▓█░ ▒██████████████████████████████▒
████████░▒██▒██████████████████████████████████
████████████ █████████████████████████████████▒
████████████ ████████████████████████████████
████████████▓░██████████████████████████████▒ ████ ██ ██
█████████████ █████████████████████████████▒ ██ ██
██████████████████████████████████████████ ████ ██ ████ █████ ████
█████████████████████████████████████████ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██
███████████████████████████████████████▓ ██████ ██ ██ ██ ██████
██████████████████████████████████████ ██ ██ ██ ██ █ ██
████████████████████████████████████▒ █████ ██████ ██████ ███ █████
███████████████████████████████████▒ ▒
█████████████████████████████████ ▒▒░ ELITE RECORD PLAYERS
███████████████████████████████ ▒▒
█████████████████████████████ ▒ ▒▒
██████████████████████████▓ ▒▒▒
████████████████████████ ░▒
████████████████████ ░▒▓▒ ░
███████████████▒▒░░▒░█░ ░
┌────────┐
────┤ Info ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
└────────┘
Artist | Club 8
Title | Above The City
Genre | Indie Format | Album
Source | CDDA Time | 39:12
Label | Labrador Records Store | 2013
Catalog | LAB148 Rip | 2015
Bitrate | 239 kbps Size | 72.18 MB
Freq | 44.1 kHz Encoder | Lame 3.98.4
┌────────┐
────┤ Tracks ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
└────────┘
01. Kill Kill Kill 3:25
02. Stop Taking My Time 2:50
03. You Could Be Anybody 4:08
04. Run 3:38
05. Interlude 0:56
06. Hot Sun 3:25
07. A Small Piece Of Heaven 2:48
08. I'm Not Gonna Grow Old 3:32
09. Interlude #2 0:21
10. Into Air 4:10
11. Instrumental 1:15
12. Travel 2:09
13. Less Than Love 3:17
14. Straight As An Arrow 3:18
┌────────┐
────┤ Notes ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
└────────┘
Formed in 1995, Club 8 became one of the pillars of Sweden's pop scene with
a string of melodic, eclectic albums. Members Karolina Komstedt and Johan
Angergard had previously worked together in the band Poprace, and their new
group - which began as a recording project before growing into a
full-fledged touring band - explored everything from bossa nova to
trip-hop. Pop always remained at the center of Club 8's sound, though, and
Angergard made additional contributions to Swedish music by helping run a
respected indie label, Labrador Records, and logging time in several
different bands.
After having spent most of their long career making records that hovered
between peacefully relaxed and melancholically chilly, with the occasional
detour into Northern soul or trip-hop, Club 8 broke out of that mode on
2010's "The People's Record", where they successfully incorporated a great
deal of late-60s/early-70s West African pop into their indie pop sound. It
was a game-changing move by the band's musical half, Johan Angergard, and
it worked wonderfully, showing that the band's trademarks (Karolina
Komstedt's richly expressive vocals, Angergard's deft productions kills,
and his knack for writing hook-filled melodies) came through just as
brightly even when the surroundings shifted.
On 2013's "Above The City", the duo stretch the boundaries of their sound
some more, still without losing the innate Club 8-ness that makes their
records so enchanting. Using the old Cubase VST 5.0 program to produce the
album, Angergard turns to some lo-fi tricks, like using Russian field
recordings, ghostly samples of children's choirs, whatever was on hand as
percussion, and a wide range of cheesy old synths, to help add texture and
depth to the album. Indeed it is probably the most varied and interesting
Club 8 record to date, with wide-ranging sounds, moods, and song styles
that cover everything from thumping indie rock complete with chanting and
metal guitars ('Straight As An Arrow'), gently percolating synth pop ('You
Could Be Anybody'), warm-as-the-sun dub-inspired jams ('Hot Sun'), and a
couple club bangers that almost give fellow Swede Robyn a run for her
glittery money ('Stop Taking My Time' and the super-discofied 'I'm Not
Gonna Grow Old').
Just to show how far the album travels on the sonic and emotional spectrum,
they reference Julee Cruise on the breathtakingly frozen ballad "Kill Kill
Kill", and on "A Small Piece Of Heaven" they sound so sunny that you almost
need sunscreen to safely listen to the song. Through it all, Komstedt's
voice is a constant, making even the most angry lyrics (and there are a few
this time around) sound coated in honey. Many bands start to run out of gas
after being together only a few years, but Club 8 have been making records
semi-steadily for nearly 20 years and have managed to stay fresh, first by
perfecting their sound, then by blowing it up and heading in exciting new
directions.
It used to be that you bought one of their albums because you knew exactly
what you would get, and that was comforting. Now you'll need to keep buying
the records to see where they will take the Club 8 template next. As for
"Above The City", this stop on the journey is pretty magical.
┌────────┐
────┤ Group ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
└────────┘