(Hometapes)
Hailing from Copenhagen, Slaraffenland have made an album that seems quite out of time without sounding in the least bit dated. Their sound is at once infectious and fidgety – a restless pop music that harks back to the days when groups had too many ideas to stop and spend any time polishing any of them into blandness, moving on to the next song before the last one had fully imprinted itself on your consciousness. If we want to look for antecedents to Slaraffenland’s deft and jittery craft, we probably have to go right back to XTC, Eno (circa Before and After Science) or maybe James’ early Factory singles, a time when art-school archness could happily co-exist with melodious populism.
Polyrhythms and vocal harmonies are lovingly captured with a sympathetically sparse production that resists all temptation to smother the life out of the songs… it’s such a rare treat to encounter a record that so effortlessly communicates both intelligence and joy.
-Alan Holmes-
