This review brought to you by: Me being a silly boy and volunteering right when my schedule blew itself up. It’s not 6 months late, it’s 6 months early from a self-imposed 2023 deadline that I totally didn’t make up just now.
This is a short one, which is probably why it took me so long to get off my duff and actually listen to it. Who is trentemøller? Honestly, I had no idea until looking up; the Danish representation on the international stage is very scant. There’s MØ and Oh Land and if you can name a third that isn’t trentemøller I will eat a hat1. His overall sound I guess would be best described as T. Raumschmiere’s contemporary: schaffel-adjacent, but filtered through shoegaze and Depeche Mode’s turns inward rather than the bombast of Nine Inch Nails that T.Raumschmiere is fond of.
The title track, featuring Giana Factory 2 member Lisbet Fritze (who is the featured vocalist on 3/4ths of this thing) would not sound out of place on a Beach House record while subsequent track, Dead or Alive, veers much more industrial. But it soon swerves back into that comfortable dream pop/shoegaze combo that Beach House have mined extensively from. There’s that Scandinavian je ne sais quois to the last two tracks that provides enough of a twist on the formula that trentemøller could not be accused of imitating them (and it doesn’t hurt that he’s been at this for a long time), but also one can never have too much of a good thing.
I, uh, took long enough to get around to this that trentemøller‘s full album, Memoria, came out in February, but if this EP was any indication it’s well worth checking out. I know I will, in my own time.
Bressonmøller: I’m old enough to have gotten down at the (teen night) nightclub to Moan, his classic 2006 effort. This was good, sort of more ambient than his older stuff but absolutely still geared to a dance floor with some of those M83 synths (M83 ‘We Own The Sky’ Official video – YouTube) all over them. The vocals are pretty great also. Anyway, here’s a list of Danish musicians out of my head in alphabetical order so we can enjoy Sloot eating a hat:
Agnes Obel, Alphabeat, Victor Borge, Aqua, Efterklang, Hatesphere, Hurdy Gurdy, Junior Senior, Mercyful Fate/King Diamond, Mew, Nektromantix, Oh No Ono, Savage Rose, Toy-Box, Volbeat and of course Whigfield of Saturday Night fame.
