MRJ: Maskineri
MUSIC REVIEW JOURNAL
New name for this segment (maybe I'll get a mood or image too) Anyways, on to one of my favorite bands. It's official, I like having a way to spend money over the internet, and I love having access to digital downloads. Anyways, I've, for a long time, been a long distance fan of Kaisers Orchestra, because I was mesmerized by their music, and when I saw the video for the Evig Piet single I was hooked. I've never been able to get ahold of a hard copy (or even a digital copy) of their music without file sharing until now (and as I may or may not have said my internet pirate days are over)
And that, is about the extent of my Norwegian. I never thought it, but despite how much I like this band, I really hate reviewing this album. It's like trying to review an album from Japan, or from a band that sings in Gaelic, if you can't translate the words and the terms in your head you can still listen to it, but it gets really hard to review it and analize it.
On to Maskineri, this album is totally not what I expected. Kaiser's Orchestra is renowned for taking inspiration from Eastern Europe, and then singing about the mob, Russian Roulette, regular Roulette, and other, spicy subjects. From what I can tell with my meager translation skills and some very bad online translators however, this album is a little softer, and just as emotionally deep. There's songs like "Den Andre Er Meg" or, 'the other is me' and "Apokalyps Meg" or, well, you could probably figure that out. The titles of the songs aren't the problem though, it's the lyrics. They sing with such rhythm and art though you can boil a meaning out of it (hopefully).
The album itself seems to be missing the trademark accordion (or maybe it's hiding in the synth somewhere) The title track, Maskinery, is a BIG deviation from the norm for this band, the song sounds a lot more like poetry than a song, and it seems to be about the machine that the entertainment industry has turned itself into. They also seemed to have drawn inspiration from more places than just eastern Europe, I keep hearing rhythms and trumpet chords I'd associate with Spanish or Mexican music, bits of it sound inspired by music from my continent. I really love the sound of "Toxic Blod" too. The ending track, "Ond Sirkel" (or "Vicious Circle") brings back the Accordion, and includes a really great chorus melody that might sound really familiar to most of my generation (And possibly the generation before us too). I like this album, a really great listen even if I don't fully understand the language yet.
A long time ago, I started a forum thread about this band, and a couple of people told me "Yeah the albums are good, but their live shows are amazing." From what I've heard, these guys have a tour schedule that could be described as 'heroic', so heroic in fact, that in 2007 they all went off to do something that wasn't Kaizer's. (Like a certain other band I know, only Kaizers got back together while that band is still being emo about it) If I ever go to Europe, seeing a Kaizers show will be on my list of things to do, before going to a historic place and after learning the local lingo+Norwegian.
I know some of you might not like international music, but then again there's someone watching my journal in Europe already...
(Btw, to him this probably isn't digging up something new :/ which was btw, the goal of this thing)
PS: I had to write this twice because LJ was being stupid.
New name for this segment (maybe I'll get a mood or image too) Anyways, on to one of my favorite bands. It's official, I like having a way to spend money over the internet, and I love having access to digital downloads. Anyways, I've, for a long time, been a long distance fan of Kaisers Orchestra, because I was mesmerized by their music, and when I saw the video for the Evig Piet single I was hooked. I've never been able to get ahold of a hard copy (or even a digital copy) of their music without file sharing until now (and as I may or may not have said my internet pirate days are over)
And that, is about the extent of my Norwegian. I never thought it, but despite how much I like this band, I really hate reviewing this album. It's like trying to review an album from Japan, or from a band that sings in Gaelic, if you can't translate the words and the terms in your head you can still listen to it, but it gets really hard to review it and analize it.
On to Maskineri, this album is totally not what I expected. Kaiser's Orchestra is renowned for taking inspiration from Eastern Europe, and then singing about the mob, Russian Roulette, regular Roulette, and other, spicy subjects. From what I can tell with my meager translation skills and some very bad online translators however, this album is a little softer, and just as emotionally deep. There's songs like "Den Andre Er Meg" or, 'the other is me' and "Apokalyps Meg" or, well, you could probably figure that out. The titles of the songs aren't the problem though, it's the lyrics. They sing with such rhythm and art though you can boil a meaning out of it (hopefully).
The album itself seems to be missing the trademark accordion (or maybe it's hiding in the synth somewhere) The title track, Maskinery, is a BIG deviation from the norm for this band, the song sounds a lot more like poetry than a song, and it seems to be about the machine that the entertainment industry has turned itself into. They also seemed to have drawn inspiration from more places than just eastern Europe, I keep hearing rhythms and trumpet chords I'd associate with Spanish or Mexican music, bits of it sound inspired by music from my continent. I really love the sound of "Toxic Blod" too. The ending track, "Ond Sirkel" (or "Vicious Circle") brings back the Accordion, and includes a really great chorus melody that might sound really familiar to most of my generation (And possibly the generation before us too). I like this album, a really great listen even if I don't fully understand the language yet.
A long time ago, I started a forum thread about this band, and a couple of people told me "Yeah the albums are good, but their live shows are amazing." From what I've heard, these guys have a tour schedule that could be described as 'heroic', so heroic in fact, that in 2007 they all went off to do something that wasn't Kaizer's. (Like a certain other band I know, only Kaizers got back together while that band is still being emo about it) If I ever go to Europe, seeing a Kaizers show will be on my list of things to do, before going to a historic place and after learning the local lingo+Norwegian.
I know some of you might not like international music, but then again there's someone watching my journal in Europe already...
(Btw, to him this probably isn't digging up something new :/ which was btw, the goal of this thing)
PS: I had to write this twice because LJ was being stupid.