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The Daily Wildcat

The Daily Wildcat

 

    Summer indie pop sets mood for autumn

    Summer indie pop sets mood for autumn

    Tired of Disney-fied music from pop automatons like Katy Perry and Miley Cyrus? Well, swap the CoverGirl lip gloss for some Day of the Dead face paint and listen to Fever Ray, an electronic alternative band with music so dark and creepy it would send Cyrus running for those mountains she always talks about moving.

    You may have already heard of Swedish sibling electronic duo The Knife (if you haven’t, download “”Heartbeats”” immediately!); they have been featured on the Entourage soundtrack, sampled by Kanye West’s DJ, and acclaimed by Modest Mouse’s frontman Isaac Brock.

    While The Knife is currently on hiatus, sister counterpart Karin Dreijer Andersson came out of whatever murky waters Scandinavian death-pop resides in early this summer to make a muddy splash all over the indie-music world with her solo project, Fever Ray. The already well-received and heavily-remixed music is melancholy, powerful, and macabre, perfect for a haunted house soundtrack. In her videos, Andersson could play the ghost as she does weird tribal dances and looks like she was attacked by the Blair Witch.

    There are a lot of great tracks on this self-titled album. “”If I Had A Heart,”” a haunting drone of a song, is the album opener and “”Concrete Walls”” sounds pitch-black. What seems to be her brother Olof Dreijer singing is actually Andersson’s voice put through a voice transformer.

    Truth be told, Fever Ray sounds more like a Knife side project than Andersson’s solo project. Sure, it’s more monotonous, sludgy, and dare I say demented than The Knife. But when Andersson harmonizes with herself, Fever Ray’s vocal set up is almost identical to The Knife as her deep voice sounds practically identical to her brother’s.  The clappy, speckled beats and eerie synths and xylophones of Fever Ray are also reminiscent of The Knife.

    “”When I Grow Up”” is probably the most successful single as far as buzz surrounding the artist goes. It was the first of her avant-garde videos which are constantly coming out. Sept. 10 brought the music video for her fourth and newest single, “”Seven.”” The single, due out Oct. 5, features remixes from the likes of CSS. The “”Seven”” single features remixes from the likes of indie-pop group Cansei de Ser Sexy.

    The new single highlights what makes Andersson’s voice eccentric: namely her Swedish accent and pitch-shifting capabilities. It also has great song structure. Too bad though because her lyrics are a little hard to get into. Talking about a childhood friend accompanying her by the kitchen sink, she recalls “”We talk about love. We talk about dishwasher tablets.”” Dishwasher tablets and love, huh? Fascinating…

    Nevertheless, critics are smitten. What’s ironic is that Fever Ray just announced Sept. 8 that this year’s worldwide tour will not only be her first, but will also be her last. I guess that’s what ghosts do, though: Haunt you and then disappear.

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