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Rating: I feel an incredibly happy sensation when I decide to buy a CD hoping it will satisfy me, and I discover that it is actually ten times better than I expected. Silent Shout is an example of this.
If you are looking for something related to the new rock movement (Arctic Monkeys, Franz Ferdinand, and the like), or if you want to soothe your sorrows with sweet love songs, you have to look elsewhere. Because here you will find only pure and ancient electronic music, from that of Kraftwerk, passing through the Moloko of Statues, to the kind that accompanied the video games of the '80s. (“Machine music is good!” they assert).
Catchy melodies are indeed few, but what makes them superb is the beautiful voice of the singer, whose Swedish accent gives it a very special charm. She is Karin Dreijer Andersson (already the performer of What Else Is There? by Royksöpp), while the other occasional singer is her brother Olof Dreijer.
This duo was born in Stockholm in 1999, a year in which their enterprise and their being outside the market logic led them to establish their own record label, Rabid Records (which is also releasing Jenny Wilson). They do nothing halfway, and they do nothing twice. Compromise is their enemy, repetition is wrong.
Their CD is very instrumental, with large non-vocal introductions for most of the songs, which sometimes makes them long. They range from the slower ones, with deep and intense voices, to the more rhythmic ones, reminiscent of the strobe lights of the disco, traveling from Chinese atmospheres to a capella choirs, but in any case, it is impossible to stop the body from moving to the rhythm. The lyrics are cryptic and the voices often distorted, computerized, synthesized; the album is eclectic, bursting with energy, almost aggressive but not arrogant.
Certainly particular, egocentric, disconcerting, surrealist, strange, just like the two Swedish siblings: they very much enjoy staying hidden and spending periods in magnificent isolation. They love videos because they are considered an extension of their music (which led them to make the short film When I Found The Knife), but they hate doing photo shoots because they say they have nothing to do with music, but when they are forced to pose, they do so by disguising themselves as what they think their works would be if they had a defined image. So one time we find them as gymnasts and the next as crows with beaks, coats, and black wigs. In fact, they describe their music as occult and dark but at the same time fun. And I could not describe it with more appropriate words…
The singles taken from the album are Silent Shout and Marble House, the most beautiful but above all the most "commercial" songs, if you can say so. The title of the first indicates the classic nightmare where you want to scream something, but no sound comes out of your mouth ("Yes in a dream all my teeth fell out / A cracked smile and a silent shout"), while the second song talks about someone who dedicates themselves to anything, just to have something to pass the time. In general, the album is about looking for something to pass the time, but also to avoid loneliness.
From a musical point of view, however, it is based on the invention of new sounds, on the discovery of new synthesizers that produce fragility and sensitivity in a changing way during their reproduction but at the same time give the idea of strength. In short, music that is sad, cold, and dark, but at the same time hard, evocative, and beautiful.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Silent Shout (04:53)
I never knew this could happen to me
I know now fragility
I know there's people who I haven't told
I know of people who are getting old
Wish I could speak in just one sweep
What you are and what you mean to me
Instead I mumble randomly
You stand by and enlighten me
In a dream I lost my teeth again
Calling me woman and half man
Yes in a dream all my teeth fell out
A cracked smile and a silent shout
A cracked smile and a silent shout
If I explain it once thoroughly
He'll have you later 'cause it's never free
You were at the gigantic spree
I caught a glimpse now it haunts me
I caught a glimpse now it haunts me
02 Neverland (03:38)
Eyes are sober and this is the plan
I'm sitting in a car heading Neverland
A fancy man a fancy man
He's pointing with the fingers that are left on his hand
Eyes are hazel but far too cold
Looking out for love
But none of us can
Where's the monkey that I've been told of
I'm staring at the money
That burns in my hand
I'm dancing for dollars
And for a fancy man
Come right over
I'll knock on your sholder
This is a story and this is what I've planned
An angry man an angry man
Nothing is more fatal than an angry man
Vulnerable heights
Feed the hand that bites me
Following the steam into another room
Standing in the corner
Is this my home
Showing us love that none of us can
I'm singing for money
That burns in my hand
Tell me
Will I make it home tonight
I'm doing it for dollars and for a fancy man
I've got a lot of money that burns in my hand
03 The Captain (06:08)
Coming home after a long long walk
Coming home after a dozen of walks
Coming home after a long long war
Coming home after a dozen of wars
We are out of wind
We have pock-marked chin
We have lots of water
We turn the other cheek and we win
One thousand stories and there's always more
We've been offered one more lap to go
In my hand I hold a key
It's dear to me cause I know where it leads
We are out of wind
We have pock-marked chin
We have all this water
We turn the other cheek and we grin
05 Na Na Na (02:27)
I've got soul in my bones
Got a home, a dog and a man to call my own
Every month
I've got my period
To take care of
And to collect in blue tampons
Na na na
Na na na
I've got mace, pepper-spray
And some shoes that runs faster than a rapist rapes
What I need is chemical castrations, hope and godspeed
Na na na
Na na na
What I need is chemical castrations, hope and godspeed...
06 Marble House (05:18)
I cut your nails and comb your hair
I carry you down the stairs
I wanted to see right through from the other side
I wanted to walk a trail with no end in sight
The moment we believe that we have never met
Another kind of love it's easy to forget
When we are all alone then we do both agree
We have a thing in common this was meant to be
You close my eyes and soothe my ears
You heal my wounds and dry my tears
On the inside of this marble house I grow
And the seeds I sow will grow up prisoners too
The moment we believe that we have never met
Another kind of love it's easy to forget
When we are all alone then we do both agree
We have a thing in common this was meant to be
Now where's your shoulder
What is its name
What's your scent
Say it again
If it goes faster can you still follow me
It must be safe when it's on TV
I raise my hands to heaven for curiosity
I don't know what to ask for
What has it got for me
The others say we're hiding
It's as forward as can be
Some things I do for money
Some things I do for free
07 Like a Pen (06:13)
Sharpen my body like a pen
Come on I need to show it
Something too small for a lense
If I rub it if I wipe it
Guiding with one single hand
Nothing's wrong you like the feeling
I am all over the land
Come on I need to show it
Back on the mountain again
I was standing watching seasons
You're now my only friend
I'm too heavy, I'm the burden
Sitting and picking on myself
It's a shiny, shiny morning
And when the light finds my eye
I'll be fleeting like a scent
I hold my breath and then count to three
On and on outworn
Must be five hundred degrees
Will it show, in my show
08 From Off to On (03:57)
We can not wait much longer
We want happiness back
We want control of our bodies
Everything we've lacked
I think I even liked it
If the feeling was mine
A little something about my body
Is it the warmth inside
When we come home, we want it quiet and calm
We want you to sing us a song
When we come home, we pull the curtains down
Making sure that the TV is on
If you move a little closer
I'll tell you what's my aim
It's every evening on a big screen
Hosted by celebrities
I had a dream about deleting and killer whales
Is it the feeling of your body
Or is it the feeling of mine
When we come home, we want it quiet and calm
We want you to be around
When we come home, we pull the curtains down
Making sure that the TV is on
From off to on
From off to on
09 Forest Families (04:08)
Too far away from the city
Some kids left on their own
They said we have a communist in the family
I had to wear a mask
Too far away from the city
We had to make this room
Fathers were football players, formal works, policemen
What the mothers did I didn't know
Music tonight
I just want your music tonight
I saw her by the organ
She was laughing while pressing the keys
She said my favourite book was dirty and
You shouldn't show you can read
Too far away from the city
We never heard its noise
We learned how to stay fit and things like
Green-tones hide the blush
Music tonight
I just want your music tonight
Music tonight
I just want your music tonight
Too far away from the city
We came to breathe clean air
Nature left a safe oasis
And the mothers walked towards the forest
Music tonight
I just want your music tonight
Music tonight
I just want your music tonight
11 Still Light (03:15)
The doctor came in the morning
She held my hand
And asked "was it worth it?"
"Could it be worse than this?"
Please recall
Give me a hint
Anything will do
If this was the last time now you should tell us what to do
I was afraid I guess
Now I can't think no more
I was so concentrated
On keeping things together
I've learned to focus on
I didn't want to disappoint
Now where is everybody
Is it still light outside?
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