Emerging: The LK

The difference between collage and mash is HUGE.  Some might not know this, but before someone like Danger Mouse was messing with John, Paul and Jay-Z or Gregg Gillis was melting your brain with his "how does he do that?" style of pop culture pureeing, there was a whole lineage of folks (from the last 60 years or so) messing and tweaking with found sounds, blips and beeps, hums and buzzes.  Mixing the abstract with the more abstract, avant garde artists the world over were experimenting with the confines of traditional musicianship, throwing the gauntlet at what the populace considered to be music with a genre they called musique concrete.

As a whole, the genre's influence has greatly outlasted the original compositions that were penned, as artists as varied as Aphex Twin, Matmos, John Cage, Frank Zappa, even those four nice boys from Liverpool.

Which brings us to Malmo, Sweden's next great export, The LK.  The band, whose name is short for The Love of Kevin, Colour, Chaos and the Sound of K, have created a collage-work masterpiece with their soon-to-be-released LP, Vs. The Snow.  Mixing together the icy winter vibe of their home country, the reluctantly beautiful lyrics of vocalist Lindefelt, and the entire history of classifiable noise pop that came before them, the duo (who look ridiculously like twins though they are not) find a quick medium between the abstract and the pop.  The compositions are light and airy, in direct contrast to what one would think about "poppy" electro music coming out of Sweden these days (cf. The Knife).  Think a less whiny Postal Service (if you must compare), only way more astounding.  Serious.  It's the perfect accompaniment for a snowy day, a trip made alone, a contemplation of how truly small we really are.

(mp3)    Private Life of a Cat

(mp3)    Stop Being Perfect

Godspeed!