Hometown: Oslo.
The lineup: Marius D Hagen (vocals, guitar), Synne Knudsen (vocals), and their four multi-instrumentalist friends.
The background: In a way, this is the third prog band to appear in this column in a row. Yes, to all intents and purposes Monday's lot were math rock, Tuesday's were death metal and today's are twee indie. But if you take "prog" to mean a certain instrumental largesse and tendency towards the maximalist, then this Norwegian six-piece belong in that category. On their forthcoming debut album To the Treetops! – due in March 2012 – they approach everything they do with gay (19th-century sense) abandon. They give good glee. And one of the upshots of that ebullience and joyous energy is they keep piling things into their songs, to the point that they're fit to burst, just as the players sound as though they're bursting with bonhomie. Its dizziness is intoxicating.
Their music has the orchestral grandeur of Arcade Fire but it's less po face, and there is male-female unison singing reminiscent of early Broken Social Scene, only the songs are more poppy. As someone wrote of Team Me, it's hard to imagine them writing a sad song, let alone one fuelled by dark urges. They make Polyphonic Spree seem like a Norwegian black metal band. They only made their live debut in January 2010 but they sound quite accomplished, even if an outside producer (singer/writer Hagen took the reins in the studio) might have edited out some of their more exuberant excesses. According to their press release: "Numerous layers of sounds and instruments were recorded in a hectic five-week period." You don't say. For "numerous" read "bazillions". Still, it's worked. In Norway, they're calling To the Treetops! one of the best debut albums ever by a Norwegian band.
Is it as deathlessly pretty as a-ha's Hunting High and Low? Probably not. Still good, though, if you're in the mood for frisky. On album opener Riding My Bicycle (from Ragnvalsbekken to Sorkedalen) Hagen sings as though he's about to jump out of his own skin with excitement, while second track Show Me starts at the peak then takes it from there. It's Go! Team's elation multiplied by the quasi-religious zealotry of the Spree. Patrick Wolf and Daniel Johns replicates the butterflies-in-the-belly tremors of infatuation. "Wake me up, my love," Hagen and Synne Knudsen sing. How could you sleep through this?! There are violins, guitars, synths, keyboards, drums – and a whole load of chanting and shouting. Even Favourite Ghost, which starts out like a gentle ballad, eventually reaches fever pitch and becomes a sort of acoustic-ambient baroque pop. They leave the best almost till last: With My Hands Covering Both of My Eyes I Am Too Scared to Have a Look at You Now is a gorgeous gush of garrulous giddiness whose title conveys at least some of the merry chaos of desire. Happiness has never been a fashionable commodity in rock, but this bunch, like the Spree and Flaming Lips before them, go some way towards reclaiming it as a viable emotion. Go Team Me![source]
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