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Before we even get to sssiv’s marvelous and mercurial music, there is plenty to discuss. Making music is, obviously, a fantastic thing to do, but not all bands approach the process in the same way. Some merely want to live in the sounds of their own past, others dream of the future but sssiv seem more content to live in the moment…or at least a fleeting series of moments.
This Danish band’s appropriately named debut album, sssiv1, is built on a process of collaboration, improvisation, and creative trust, enabling them to create sounds that are more about mood and emotion than necessarily the sonic means to a musical end. And surely, collaboration and improvisation are powerful tools, allowing musicians to blend their visions, go with the flow, and take the music-making process to its logical conclusion rather than merely be drawn along pre-planned lines. And that is the process we find at work here.
The resulting album is a brilliant blend of song and experimentation and of following sonic threads to see where they lead. It is typified by a delicate, ambient, indie sound, shot through with occasionally more robust guitar lines and bathed in shimmering vocal tones and chiming sonics.
“sea salt” for me is not only a sonic high point of the album but a song that has been added to my mental short list of songs of the year, a deft balance of song and sentiment, grace and groove. “memory boy” floats with a fantastic lightness, a mix of sixties sonics and dream pop ethereality and “false harmonics” shows that they are just as capable of making beat and bass driven, post-punk-inspired music as they are working with more gossamer indie sounds.
This is not only a gorgeous album but also a truly unique sound. Sure, you have heard something slightly reminiscent of sssiv1, but nothing quite as enchanting and artistic as this.
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