1099 – Blindpassasjer

All Good Clean

1099 are a five-piece instrumental rock band from Trondheim in Norway, all of whom take responsibility for song-writing duties, and according to their Discogs page the band is pretty much post-everything, including post-yacht. This little nugget goes some way to explaining why they stand out from the usual crowd of vocal-less guitar bashers that have proliferated over the years. This is their third album in about ten years and features twelve tracks spread across four sides of lovely olive vinyl.

Straight away, Blindpassasjer looked good, and on dropping the needle down, I was instantly taken by the lightness of the electric piano intro to opener “Silverdal”. The accompanying guitar drifting on the aether like a bird in flight immediately brought an uplifting mood to the track, but there is still a forceful feeling to it. The addition of both Mellotron and Moog really gives the band a certain something that stands even further out.

For a Norwegian instrumental band, they are not afraid to look for their inner joy, using the keyboards to inject a gentle subtlety where necessary to avoid the usual clichés. The rhythm section sits back and allows the song to unfold, but are able to up the gears when required. The circling two-guitar interplay on “Tundra” is just delightful and there is a filmic quality to the song structure, the sort of scene where the sun is breaking on a new day, and as the day warms up so does the guitar activity, trilling from the treetops as the song gathers strength partway through.

The slow burn sensibility of “Osiris” is brought about by the addition of saxophone which, along with the sinuous rhythm and Fender Rhodes, generates a strange mystery. It is filmic again, this time evoking dark alleys and foot chases; a glance from the corner of a building or someone seen briefly crossing a bridge, spotted from a rooftop. Strange noises appear and disappear like wisps of mist and the final sax solo leads us into different territory again. Where before it was happy to trace the song, here it squeals and stretches, attempting to bend the song out of shape and pull it off its trajectory. There are three guitar players in the band and there are moments when you really know it. Everybody jumps in on “Under Isen”, just to prove that they can; guitars fizz, cymbals crash and flail. It is an intensity that perhaps works better because they choose not to throw it into every track, but use the guitar squall in a measured way and ensure that it is all the more effective for that.

The longest of the tracks is the title track and takes up most of side two. “Blindpassasjer” is quite a work-out for the drummer, even though the track was written by one of the guitarists. It is quite a complicated but very driving rhythm, scattered with chord structures that are perfectly picked to go straight to the listener’s heart. This is quite a yearning track and with the melodies played by Yamaha CS10 and Mellotron, there is wistfulness at its core, notes light as gossamer floating in an open sky. It rolls on and rolls on, not gathering momentum, but just moving with the perfect pace, the 1970s synth sounds ensuring a sense of wellbeing.

There is no real obvious comparisons that I can think of with this band. A fresh interpretation of the instrumental guitar group, but with strong intervention from various esoteric keyboard instruments really does change the feel. On “For Seg Salv”, the closest neighbour is Friends Of Dean Martinez, the use of pedal steel, another unusual instrument for such a band, evoking as ever widescreen prairies and dusty mountain passes, whereas the exultant “En Druknet Verden” throws everything into the mix. Washes of stringy synths in the background accompany the Fender, the Moog, the Mellotron and even the pedal steel, all vying for attention. It is bursting with joy and good feeling, and that seems to be exactly what this album is about; but let us not forget the dramatic forest landscape scenario of “Til Jerden”. He we have a slow build of intensity and sense of expectation, the spiralling guitars shimmering like a thousand pairs of wings beating above the trees, illuminated by the bright sunlight leaking through the canopy and down onto the cold crispness underfoot.

Although the album is a law unto itself, covering whatever ground the clearly talented songwriters wish to, I wasn’t prepared for the opening track of side four. “Kontinental” has Fender Rhodes and a saxophone that is the antithesis of what appeared earlier. This is almost Miami Vice territory, the track giving a cheeky nod to Jan Hammer and perhaps explains why someone felt the description “post-yacht” to be fitting. It is kind of out of place, but on second thoughts, nothing is out of place here. The charm and diversity of the album, along with the great playing, a willingness to experiment and to be gentle, even a little romantic.

By the time the squalling guitars have blown the cobwebs out on closer “Vintersøvn”, about eighty minutes have passed and it is time to play the record again just to see how much you missed first time around. There must be something in the water in Norway, for 1099 have set a really high standard for what can be expected from instrumental music these days. Unafraid to go where their muse takes them, this is a fantastic journey to undertake with them.

-Mr Olivetti-