Work for the Hummel Orange Karma campaign.
Author: Alan Kortbaek
Tetiur, Vega Feb 2014
A fair weather fairytale from the stormy Faroe Islands
Faroese musician Teitur has the unusual ability of being able to connect with his listeners through poetic, captivating storytelling.
His lyrics are the winding tales about a multifaceted collection of people in all walks of life, from the desperate hipster, through to the cell-phone vendor and the merry-go-man at amusement parks. Each character is treated with equal amounts of love and humor in the Teitur universe.
Backed by two cellists and another singer / guitarist, a drummer and a chap who was introduced as “the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, on percussion,” Teitur was at his usual captivating self.
His latest album, Story Music was at the helm of his set on Saturday which also featured a bit of his older material and was almost a carbon copy of his set in Århus ‘Run the carousel’ and ‘Louis Louis’ are but two tracks that were well received.
The former brought a welcome kicking impetus to an otherwise tame concert whilst ‘Louis Louis’ took a cocky stab at the politics of George W Bush when he was president.
The mixed audience reacted with discreet laughter at the political touch, and this was where the politics started and ended on the night.
The rest of the evening featured Teitur’s lengthy banter accompanied by soft-spoken, discreetly placed musical arrangements that echoed with the unique creativity of Faroese musicianship, a lot of which has an almost spellbinding quality to it.
His is a form of musicianship that is replete with warmth and positive energy, elements that have been in short supply locally of late and that, by such virtue, were well received.
An extended three song encore came all too soon for many, most of all Teitur who looked as if he could have played for the entire evening and into dawn. Whilst his show was indeed a credible performance and an enjoyable experience that was shared by a very mixed crowd of old and young, there are some who felt that it was too close a copy of an earlier show in Århus.
This notwithstanding, originality was still an element that was present in plenty insofar as Teitur’s musicianship was concerned. There are well and truly few Scandinavian musicians that can cultivate an identity as well as he does through his anecdotal renditions.
My First Abandoned Building
Imagine a city where graffiti wasn’t illegal, a city where everybody could draw whatever they liked. Where every street was awash with a million colours and little phrases. Where standing at a bus stop was never boring. A city that felt like a party where everyone was invited, not just the estate agents and barons of big business. Imagine a city like that and stop leaning against the wall – it’s wet.”
The Range, Ideal Bar Feb 2014
Ideal Bar, 5 out of 6 stars
I traipsed lazily into the warm environs of Vega’s Ideal bar not really knowing what to expect on Wednesday night. Dark wintry evenings are not the best fodder for even the most ardent music lovers but Ideal bar, the smallest sibling in the Vega family, tends to impress almost every time out.
I got in just in time for opening act Jongpadawan (Pronounced Young Padawan, a reference to star wars), who paved the path for a lo-fi evening with a serving of sautéed bits and pieces that contained a solid electronic foundation, lightly glazed with merry, abstract beat wizardry. For a 21 year old with only a handful of releases to his credit, Jongpadawan proved to be a class act, worthy of a stage at either August’s Strøm or Distortion later in the year , so keep an eye open for him.
Moving back to the main act; The Range, aka James Hinton, waltzed casually onto the stage and got straight down to business with his set, playing a tightly woven sequence of tracks that mixed seamlessly with each other from the get-go. Hinton’s music draws from influences as far wide as grime, hip-hop, and jungle, side-dishes around a main platter of electronic nature. The result is a complex sound, that sounds remotely similar to the surreal composition of underground British artists like Burial fused with infusions of Andreas Trentemøller’s driven experimental forays.
Several songs off debut album Nonfiction were particularly emblematic; ‘the loftmane’ for it’s wicked sampled vocal, ‘Seneca’ for it’s euphoric buildup and the fact that it sounds very much like the work of revered electronic artist Gold Panda and ‘Postie’ for its symphonic piano chords that sound like they’re straight out of a 1930’s Bechstein grand piano in a cavernous hall. Hinton sang along to many of his tracks adding layer upon layer of beats, effects and the occasional turntable scratch for good measure, luring the small crowd onto a bewildering journey through the sound that has earned him a call-up to Barcelona’s legendary Primavera Sound later this year. Equally impressive were the two old school hip-hop tracks that he played towards the end of the show, a humble tribute to one of the underlying influences of his music. Where Britains Disclosure have gained fame through accessible, pop-influenced tunes laden with wonderful electronic influences, The Range has developed a slightly similar style, rooted in hip-hop and woven in contemplative beat work that should see this kid kick it with some of the very best, if his present trajectory continues on the blazing trail it has lit over the last year or so.
2014
Point Blank, Ideal Bar January 2014
Original article in this week’s Copenhagen Post
5 out of 6 stars
After bearing witness to a mere five minutes worth of performance time by hip hop orchestra Point Blank, the first burning question in the back of my mind was why on earth lively boys from Århus were stuck in the miniature confines of Ideal Bar and not filling the floor at Store Vega. As the concert went on, it became evident that these chaps are surely destined for bigger and brighter prospects in the future, which is saying a lot, considering that they’ve already notched warm-up gigs for the likes of Ice Cube, and France’s Hocus Pocus.
Point Blank waltzed onto the small stage at Ideal Bar sporting smiles and heavily armed with an array of brass instruments with which to lay their mark on the cold evening. Their merry sound is one that is comparable to some of the epic hip hop tracks of the eighties, with a witty modernist touch that features rapid lyrics from their frontman that are not too unlike those employed by rapid rappers such as the U.S.A’s Ludacris. And whilst one may draw all manner of parallels with seminal bands like The Roots or point to their sound being a very Brooklyn- like affair, Point Blank are quick to distance themselves from most forms of classification, with good cause too, for theirs is a sound that is as unique as it is innovative.
theslightlydarkerside.blogspot.com
Ideal bar have made considerable improvements to their sound and ambiance, through better insulation and a revamped wall section that contains the sound a bit better. It showed on the night, with the brassy sounds of Point Blank ricocheting stylishly off the wood-finish walls. Ahead of their debut album, set to drop in Autumn, Point Blank’s repertoire is not the most extensive but the few tracks they do have were played with passion, aplomb and Jutlandish humility, three tenets that underscore what they are all about musically. With sub-zero winds and gnarling temperatures lashing at people’s humour, the audience can be forgiven for taking their time to well and truly open up to the night’s entertainment, though it was never a venue that was going to yield wild scenes of merrymaking and chaos. Rather, things were chilled and laidback; a mellow, systematic buildup to a finale that saw Point Blank churn out some of the more lyrically driven tunes in their arsenal as their lead singer charmed his way into the crowd with a series of rapid-fire vocals. Expect bigger and better things from this band, probably the best in Danish hip hop at the moment and for some time to come.
Polica, Lille Vega, January 2014
Polica better than the last time around
original article in this week’s version of The Copenhagen Post
A solid improvement over their last Lille Vega show and a sign of better things to come (PR Photo)
Polica
January 24 at Lille Vega
Synth pop dreamers Polica had a solid if underwhelming debut on Danish soil last summer when they performed at a steamy Lille Vega. Wind the clock forward and plummet down the temperature gauge a good 30 degrees and the Minneapolis quintet are back in town, this time around having grown musically over the past half a year or so.
A welcome blast of brooding bass served by Marijuana Death Squads, the industrially inclined, R&B-influenced warm-up act, breathed life into a frozen audience that quickly warmed to the evening’s entertainment. Whilst solid in their performance, the Death Squads were perhaps too hefty a cocktail to start the night off with, as their high pitch frequencies tore into the thin evening air with a menacing vengeance.
Polica pranced elegantly onto the scene and tamed the chaos, driving home coaxing, organic-sounding synth pop that highlighted the best of lead singer Channy Leanagh’s vocal talents against a backdrop of heavier sounds. From time to time she did sound slightly at sea in the waves of instrumentation, but it was certainly an improvement on Polica’s last appearance at the same venue.
Leanagh’s charm is by and large her greatest asset as a performer and this was ultimately what allowed her to gain the respect and attention of the begrudging audience who fronted their usually icy first impression upon Polica’s stage emergence.
Songs off 2012 album Give You The Ghost were the order of the day, performed with flair, fluency and a remarkably quick wit. The highlight of this was signature track ‘Dark Star’, a number that encapsulates all that is good about Polica: Leanagh’s soft vocals over a firm foundation of synth pop brilliance that sparkles with flares of distant melancholia and elation in equal measure.
The audience warmed to Polica as the show neared its conclusion, charmed no doubt by the quick wit of Leanagh, who reinforced her performance with short bursts of creative banter in between songs. After a short, swift encore Polica exited the stage as they had come, humbly pleased with a good performance on the night. Though just shy of a five star rating, it is pleasing to note how much the band have grown in just six months and fair to expect even better from them in the future.
Wide eyed and weary
I am wide eyed and weary
and the sweat of the day has left me drenched
My heart parched
my soul vacuous
A cavern draped in the blisters of time
Still within this cocoon of hope I sleep
A whispered hush across a breezy field
A ripple in a raging tide
My thoughts mute to the loot
of narcissistic men and unsure women
And of dream-carved nightmares
Dented democracies and catastrophic communists
Self serving kingdoms and self-defacing subjects
Crying forests and injured natives
Jubilant elite and rejoicing taxmen
And scornful heretics of the religiously fanatic
Whose blood and sweat tar the stairwell to Hades
Whose efforts hijacked an idea and mass produced it
To laymen looking for a flickering light
In the valley of the shadow of death
Wide eyed and weary
I shall fear no evil
No whistling thorns and no false hopes
All I see is but brotherly bliss
And camaraderie across difference
I see a small minority of conservative loons
A majority of ardent purveyors
Wide eyed and glaring
Their hearts ablaze
Their souls candlelit embers in the light of life
And in this cocoon of hope we sleep
Wide eyed and weary, searching for an angry fix
Wandering towards a dawn in the black streets of town
Illuminated
The year in review: Best acts of 2013, International
- London Grammar, If you Wait
The vocals of Hannah Reid are possibly the best of any British artist out there. Cast on a backdrop of minimalist, sparsely spread pop that triggers vague memories of bands like the X.X, make no mistake, London Grammar are the next big band . ‘Wasting my young years’ is the cream of the crop, easily the best song i’ve heard this year
- Disclosure , Settle
Myspace starlights, Disclosure are two brothers from Surrey who’ve gone all the way to the top and beyond with their debut album. Theirs is a pop-esque, synth-rich universe that evokes dense euphoric landscapes that’ll be the soundtrack of some of the best times of your life if you let them. Epic showings at Roskilde and Vega this year are a testament to this.
- Cut Copy, Free your mind
Australian band Cut Copy are the cool kids of disco these days, fusing a wonderfully vintage disco inclination with nomadic vocals and a lingering synth-kick that runs riot in ones mind. Their previous albums were equally overwhelming, albeit less libertine than ‘Free your mind,’ whose title speaks for itself.
- Agnes Obel, Aventine
Denmark is the land of Kim Larsen, Aqua and Agnes Obel. Of the aforementioned, Obel is by far the most skilled singer and the most emblematic of the three. Dark, minimalist and meandering, ‘Aventine’ features the characteristic compelling piano arrangements alongside petal soft vocals that have come to define Obel’s sound.
- Janelle Monae, The electric lady
Janelle Monae is sheer class and her second album is everything her last one was not. Spontaneous, elegant and diverse, Monae’s sound follows a typical r & b vocal trajectory spread over a varied, gentle backdrop of beats that give her the space to sing loud and clear. Collaborations with Prince and Erykah Badu strengthen the mould of a solid album.
BEST OF THE REST
- The Lumineers, The Lumineers
- Rhye, Woman
- Black Milk, No poison, no paradise
- Jon Hopkins, Immunity
- Daft Punk, Random access memories
Kortbæk_Travels 