VANLIGT FOLK - PALLE BONDO (12")

"Ideal throw a total curveball with Vanligt Folk's doomdub body music mutations on Palle Bondo, where the Oslo/Gothenburg trio drop their punk leanings in favour of a stark sound lodged somewhere between Mika Vainio, CS + Kreme, Fever Ray, Toresch, and even Autechre. The origins of the record are a bit cryptic and personal, which perhaps prompted the abrupt switch from their earlier styles to this, a more grown-up and pointed set of songs that vent their worries in a coolly gripping and cryptic style - not least because we can't translate their Swedish lyrics. However, it's not difficult to comprehend their music - a starkly spacious but invitingly introspective sound whose icy exterior is belied by a quietly seething rage against socio-political and medical convention. In the first song, that comes out as a subtly warped take on Scando ambient dub in Kostymfest/Sken Av Palmpsalmighet, whose combo of looming darkside pads, torchlit croon and pendulous snare cracks uncannily recalls a munted Toresch, before Är Du Min Dotters Ängel plumbs a cyberpunk dancehall style somewhere to the shadier side of Fever Ray and Simone Trabucchi's STILL. Curiosity is only heightened on the flipside with Nipt/Gensangerin, where the vocals unavoidably conjure direct comparison with Karin Dreijer, but against a mystic synth backdrop redolent of that recent, amazing Laszlo Hortobagyi reissue, then calving off into a sumptuous mid-section of swooping subbass contours, dembow drums and pointillist hooks like something from Equiknoxx, only to finish with a wicked sample of Autechre's Piezo strapped to gremlin vocals and spectral horror flick sounds on Mer Än Normal." (label info) numbered edition of 300 copies, transparent vinyl