EFTERKLANG (London Bush Hall, 23/11/07)

If Amiina covered the works of Joe Hisashi and underpinned it with the rhythmic precision of Battles, the result might sound a bit like Efterklang. Mostly ditching the swelling loud-soft dynamics so common of their post-rock ilk, the Danish band’s sound is a strikingly organic one; low key, acoustic, with subtle, unshowy timbres and a vocal style straight out of an early Soviet workers choir. Adding to this idiosyncratic mix is a unexpected math-rock element; there’s irregular time-signatures and clockwork-precise drumming a-plenty, although the notoriously impersonal, mechanical soullessness of that genre is mostly absent here.

As pretentious as this all may sound, it’s offset by the sheer enthusiasm of the group itself; far from the beard-stroking musos you’d expect, they’re bedecked in silly costumes, awful facial hair and a winningly easy-going nature. Full of gleeful enthusiasm, their obvious pleasure at playing to such an attentive audience made their music all the more enchanting; with a greater focus on vocal elements than on record, most notably on Towards The Bare Hill, it’s also instilled with far more warmth than you’d expect. And getting the whole of Bush Hall to join in the vocal harmonies of Cutting Ice Into Snow was a wonderfully communal moment, a real rarity in the “too-cool-to-care” hipster-dominated London scene. Having not expected overmuch from Efterklang, it was satisfying to see such complex, esoteric music performed with a lack of ego or self-indulgence and in the end, it proved to be one of the more understated highlights of the year.



Their violinist Peter Broderick was also good in support; although too many of his tracks came across as sketches rather than fully-formed compositions, his multi-looped vocal harmonies and interesting use of instruments (saws and plastic tubing) are definitely worth investigating further.

(Photos: Ragsmaloy (Flickr))