Singvogel

Oh Boy

Written by: PP on 10/04/2015 23:15:25

Denmark is the only breeding ground I know for music in similar vein as Singvogel, thanks to the experimentalism preached by Roskilde Festival's booking department where it's often more important to sound unique than to have good songs in your repertoire. That same ideology applies to Århus based Singvogel and their debut album "Oh Boy", which blends together way too many genres for its own good in an effort to sound different from the norm. Basically, the band use monosynths, clarinet, and electric mandolin together with the traditional guitar/bass/drums combo, but not in a folksy manner as you might immediately guess from that setup. Instead, the band drowns in effect-laden melodies that are best described as weird and fuzzy darkwave experiments where even surf and rockabilly rear their heads in the midst of songs that could -- if these elements were removed altogether -- be featured as garage rock tracks.

The band themselves describe their sound as a punked and psyched up rock'n'roll experiment in a provincial voodoo style with occult serenade, dark pop songs and influence from American cowboy pop. Lots of strange descriptors that unfortunately land close to reality with "Oh Boy". I say unfortunately because the result is a chaotic mess of odd musicianship that really has no place in anyone but the most experimental music lovers' record collection. Everything is sung in Danish, which limits their appeal to the national scene only, but even here, it's difficult to see them going far with as effect-laden and weirdo sound as they profess on their record. Where are the melodies and the memorable song structures? These basic songwriting ideas have binned in favour of a noisy and fuzzy expression itself that reeks of hipster ideals and needless experimentation. The vocals are off-tune, the all-encompassing fuzz distortion makes the guitars feel out of place, and the effects are just way too much most of the time. Even Tue Madsen behind the knobs wasn't able to salvage good songs out of these weirdo pieces of musicianship. Enter at your own risk.

4

Download: Giftblander, Skyggeboxer
For the fans of: Experimental music, Roskilde Festival
Listen: Facebook

Release date 07.02.2015
Self-Released

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