I've been checking out a lot of year-end "best of" lists. Many of them overlap which is proof of the music's quality. Bands such as Deerhoof, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Bloc Party and Wolf Parade have all been written up and read up over the past three weeks-and they're great groups. You've probably already checked out many of those lists yourself and heard much of the music, so I've got a reccomendation that I have not found on anyone's "best of 2005" list.
Hird is the name the Swedish Christoffer Berg has given to his musical creation. On his 2005 debut release Moving On, the 22-year-old Berg is the mastermind behind every sound on the disc. Not only is the record the first full lenght release for Hird, it's the first album distributed DMN Dealers of Nordic Music. For only having released a few albums so far the site is a great introduction to the Scandinavian electronic scene.
The word nu-jazz appears all over the place in descriptions of Berg's nordic electronic creations. And really that's what you'll hear. While many of the tracks have a club feel to them, you won't find anything near a house anthem here. Jazz is hiding behind every syncopated note here and the female vocals suggest a deep appreciation for Ella Fitzgerald. Nine tracks of silky traveling chillout with a souful jazz backdrop is what you'll enjoy on first listen. On repeated plays the layers will peel themselves back revealing what is just really good mid-tempo electronic jazz. Every cut is outlined with a mellow yet soulful organ creating a warm nest for the deep bass high hat combos. Even though the vocals come across at first listen as repetitive, it's as though they are more part of the music than actually words. The words here continue, they travel, they don't merely repeat.
The album's jewel, Moving On, is the perfect soundtrack to a early winter drive through Sweden, I'd imagine, or an October run along a Michigan coast. Christoffer Berg has made a truly pleasing electronic album and certainly will again.
Check out Hird samples and many of the other DNM artists at the DNM Loft.
