RHUM

 The most challenging thing about this band is trying to spell its name. Efterklang is a four-piece from Denmark who often expand into a seven or more piece during live shows. It sounds like they put on a good gig, with guest performers and orchestras and experimental rock all over the place. Unfortunately though, they seem to be suffering from the same syndrome as the last band I reviewed for this website, Local Natives, an affliction that strips depth and impact from the music of otherwise very proficient musicians.

Like the Local Natives, the tracks are well constructed, with delicate hooks and sounds complexly woven throughout the tracks. ‘Modern Drift’ is a beautiful opening and creates some initial momentum but this is unfortunately thoroughly stagnated by the end. ‘Alike’, the faraway sounding and much more limp second track kills it almost immediately. The result, unfortunately, is that unless you’re really paying attention, it’s very easy for Magic Chairs to fade into the background.

In a technical sense it’s a very good piece of work. There’s a lot to this album. Some of the big sound sections and well-measured harmonies are even reminiscent of something you might hear on Sufjian Stevens record – one of the more recent ones like Illinoise or Avalanches. But when Sufjian sings he means it and unfortunately, from the sound of it, vocalist Casper Clausen doesn’t.

If the album was a piece of architecture it would be a very intricately ornamented but impenetrable wall – beautiful to look at but something to halt before. It won’t let you in or take you anywhere. There are some chinks in it, especially after a few listens – the urgent violin line behind the vocals in ‘I Was Playing Drums’ for example, or the brilliant percussion opening of ‘Harmonics’. But then in comes Clausen again with his droll and half-asleep vocals and the spirit goes out of it.

I can only hope that bands like Efterklang and Local Natives start feeling human emotion, if they’re not already, and then start injecting it into their music. What they produce is real pretty, but pretty can only get you so far.

Stand out tracks: Modern Drift, I Was Playing Drums, Harmonics

2.41/5

Efterklang is out through 4AD / Remote Control Records on February 19