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May 09 2008
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Elly Roberts reviews
Silje Nes: Ames Room
Distributed by
Fat Cat
- January 2008
- Rating: 4/10
Lo-fi experimental quirkiness, from the land of Vikings.
Norwegian performer and composer Silje Nes writes cute, weird songs.
This gorgeous Scandinavian blonde is also a multi-instrumentalist, so she’s
quite an empowered babe prepared to do things her way, even if it’s a bit
quirky and very experimental at times. Much of Ames Room is off
the UK’s pop radar, but worth checking out.
Her mix of sweet vocals and eccentricity make it a fascinating listen. Because
of her instrumental talents, Silje’s gone for some seriously charming off the
wall audio experiences that ultimately won’t appeal to everyone. Perhaps its
greatest attraction by the Bergen-based artist is the childlike naivety that
permeates throughout the entire album, which is a strange move for someone who
studied classical piano for many years.
This collection sees her tackling instruments she’d never played before with the
recordings done on a four track home recorder, hence the lo-fi outcome. It opens
with clunking vibraphone and vocal musings that run for just over two minutes
of Over All.
On atmospheric Drown, things become more conventional with Nes gently picking
an acoustic guitar, followed by mashed-up sonics and guitar for the rambling
Shapes Electric, which is sort of repeated on Long Shadows.
Sometimes you wish she’d just get on with the songs instead of being consumed by
the audio extras, or in some cases, distractions.
A ‘proper’ song finally emerges – Bright Night Morning, and its simple
stuff. An understated drum beat, acoustic guitar, lightweight vocal and what appears
to be a violin ghosting in the background. Closing the album she’s gone for a
wandering instrumental, No Bird Can.
To make a greater impact, Nes should have cut many of these ‘songs’ out. Suck
it and see for yourselves.
File under: Interesting, if you can slog it out.
The full list of tracks included are :
1. Over All
2. Drown
3. Shapes, Electric
4. Ames Room
5. Giant Disguise
6. Dizzy Street
7. Long Shadows Left Around
8. Bright Night Morning
9. Recurring Dream
10. Searching, White
11. Magnetic Moments Of Spring Objects
12. Melt
13. Escape
14. No Bird Can
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Review & concert pics copyright © Elly Roberts, 2004-2008.
For prints of any of Elly's concert pics online,
email Elly
or call 07765 862017.
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DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
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