If Fleet Foxes were to trade their acoustic guitars for synthesizers and drum machines, move from the grassy fields to the dance clubs, and lighten up a bit, they might sound something like When Saints Go Machine. The Danish four-piece’s debut album, Konkylie, is an alluring mix of pure pop, misshapen chamber, and electronic music. It is odd, lovely, infectious, and confounding—and I keep coming back to it.
While the music bobs and sways, it’s Nikolaj Manuel Vonsild’s strange, nearly androgynous vocals—recalling the trembling falsetto of Antony Hegarty and the raw emotion of Mark Hollis or David Sylvian—that pulls and pulls, keeps me coming back, scratching my head, wondering whether I like it, humming along.
Konkylie, on !K7 Records, is available today.
For your viewing and listening pleasure:
The creepy video for “Add Ends.”
The psychedelic video for “Church and Law.”
And you can listen to “Kelly,” probably my favorite track from Konkylie, right here.
