Let's face it, if Norway has a reputation in music it's for their burning black metal scene, which has more stories attached to it than just about any place. Recent times has seen the rise of electronic music, thanks to Smalltown Supersound and the Sunkissed club night, but there really is a lot more to the country than just corpse paint and cosmic disco.
This week I'll be in Oslo, Norway for the tenth annual Øya Festival, covering the event on my blog, which you can find at Øya.Exclaim.ca. In addition, I've decided to feature up-and-coming Norwegian artists playing the festival in this here column that show there's more going on than most people think.
I must admit that I am not much of an improv or jazz aficionado. It's something that doesn't get an awful lot of attention in Click Hear, but as soon as I heard the frenzied progressions of Norwegian supergroup Elephant9, I couldn't help but get overexcited.
Signed to the influential Rune Grammofon label, this trio is comprised of members from Supersilient, the National Bank and Shining, to name a few of the bands they moonlight in. With the speed of a grindcore band and the concentration and precision of your finest math rockers, Elephant9 don't just jam, they explode together. Just check out their album cover - this is as close as you can get to capture sound with an image.
Lifted from their relatively new album, Dodovoodoo, the song of the same name is a multi-layered juggernaut that utilizes climbing prog organ riffage, rolling psych guitar licks and drums so scattered and feral that I sweat just thinking about how Torstein Lofthus functions each day with such energy within him. Shit, makes me feel damn lazy.
From the sounds of their MySpace, Elephant9 aren't always so hasty, but how could any band keep up such intensity?
You can buy your copy of Dodovoodoo here.
Elephant9 "Dodovoodoo"
This week I'll be in Oslo, Norway for the tenth annual Øya Festival, covering the event on my blog, which you can find at Øya.Exclaim.ca. In addition, I've decided to feature up-and-coming Norwegian artists playing the festival in this here column that show there's more going on than most people think.
I must admit that I am not much of an improv or jazz aficionado. It's something that doesn't get an awful lot of attention in Click Hear, but as soon as I heard the frenzied progressions of Norwegian supergroup Elephant9, I couldn't help but get overexcited.
Signed to the influential Rune Grammofon label, this trio is comprised of members from Supersilient, the National Bank and Shining, to name a few of the bands they moonlight in. With the speed of a grindcore band and the concentration and precision of your finest math rockers, Elephant9 don't just jam, they explode together. Just check out their album cover - this is as close as you can get to capture sound with an image.
Lifted from their relatively new album, Dodovoodoo, the song of the same name is a multi-layered juggernaut that utilizes climbing prog organ riffage, rolling psych guitar licks and drums so scattered and feral that I sweat just thinking about how Torstein Lofthus functions each day with such energy within him. Shit, makes me feel damn lazy.
From the sounds of their MySpace, Elephant9 aren't always so hasty, but how could any band keep up such intensity?
You can buy your copy of Dodovoodoo here.
Elephant9 "Dodovoodoo"
