The Land of Milk and Honey

Its been a long time since 2002 when I became obsessed with droney wee-wee glacier pop from our snowier blond friends in the northern part o europe and islands nearby.

hey, slow that shit down assholes: snow sounds like arppegiated chords with reverb and you know it.

well, back from the dead, the glacier pop has come. at least for this music listener. like I've said in the past I have become gradually more obsessed with the cold opaque liqueur these evil Denmarkian kings (and queens) pour into my ear. and I haven't even thrown myself into the Efterklang yet.

Anyhow, I'm here as your fishmonger to breathe new life into your snowy, albeit neglected, folders of your computers with Slaraffenland.

Their album Private Cinema is a triumph of atmosphere and a clever Broken Social Sceneish use of the horn section. Don't go looking for these guys to change your life any more than Sigur Ros did back in 2001, they're not trying to change your life. They're just trying to make your ears happy and use up all of the little O's with a line through it: ø which is a depletable resource that they mine from the ground in Iceland and Sweden.

How do you think they pay for their instruments to make pretty, fairy pop for us? Growing white asparagus and playing as elf extras in Lord of the Rings? Thats racist.

Slaraffenland - Polaroids

Polaroids begins with (gasp!) beautiful Aurora Borealises of flute, a snare and a bass kick in, an (what?) arpeggiated chord on an acoustic guitar, a chant/hymnal vocal line, an incredible horn section. and then you kick back and take a nap and watch the earth turn very slowly.

I'd very much like for you to go to their myspace page and listen to more of their music.

I'd also like if you listened to a song that pitchfork posted a while back thats even better than the one I played for you above. Which is here


and you should buy the whole album because its quite very good.

and now for something completely different:

Happiness is a solid, Joy is a liquid

"...the most singular difference between happiness and joy is that happiness is a solid and joy a liquid" J.D. Salinger in "Nine Stories"

My body is a locus of infinite possibilities, my ears very much the same. My brain floats in a pool of inequalities. at times I will have the silicon fjords of Efterklang, glaciering around in there. at other times I'll listen to the hit-your-face-with-a-hammer sounds of bands like Black Eyes.

lately I've been taking in the sounds of "1 2 3 4" by Ms. Feist. now I'm not that big on the album but if you're not sold by watching this amazing video then I don't know what will sell you on this song.



right? I like the one guy in the striped red sweater that probably arrived late to the shoot and was all like "oh shit, I was supposed to wear solid red? well, I can't get back to my house now! My Dad dropped me off on his way to work."

anyhoo, theres all that going into my head these days and then theres this L.A. band Silver Daggers an amalgam of LA post hardcore and free jazz. They sound like "Cough" era Black Eyes but something about them allows for a much more accessible sound. They sound excited and youthful and joyous to be making the racket they're making whereas Black Eyes sounded tattered and haggard and defeated.

Silver Daggers - Joy

"Joy" is one of those rare riots that occurs not from anger or despair but sheer, unadulterated joy. Like when you and your buddies are all back together and wasted and you all just want to get into trouble and smash down walls and break windows and set shit on fire. The unstoppable bassline kicks in like a cinder block and the cacophonous brass section is fists thrashing the air.

Check out Silver Dagger's myspace page.

and buy their record at Load Records.