SIRI KARLSSON – 100 DB (2022, LP Tombola Records)

RELEASE INFO:

Label: Tombola Records

Format: LP, Album, Limited Edition, Magenta Transparent

Release Date: 11 August 2022

I have to admit that before I come across Siri Karlsson’s 6^th (!!!) album release, I didn’t even know the existence of this exciting Swedish female duo! The little info on their Bandcamp page only arises my curiosity! It reads:

“Voodoo punk, art rock and psychedelic world from Sweden.
The critically acclaimed duo Siri Karlsson, consisting of Maria Arnqvist and Cecilia Österholm, creates their own universe of voodoo-punk, post-rock, space rock, and psychedelic folk with their mix of key fiddle, saxophone, vocals, and synthesizers”…  

The musicians that participate in “100 DB” are Maria Arnqvist (Saxophone, vocals, synthesizers), Cecilia Österholm (Key fiddle, vocals, synthesizers), Jonna Löfgren (Drums), Felisia Westberg (Bass), and guest Viktor Brobacke (Trombone on “Are you my enemy”). “100 DB” contains 6 tracks in total and the sure thing is that is very hard to “categorize” the music of the album, you cannot use one or two words to describe what is happening inside here, and at least for me, this is quite intriguing and exciting too! And something else that I find quite important is that I know many people who listen to the first track of the album and if they do not like it, then they do not bother to listen next… What a terrible terrible mistake! For instance, the opener “Not My Kind” from the album “100 DB”, may fool you, it doesn’t give you the slightest idea of what is happening next… “Not My Kind” is a diversion, 2 minutes and 22 seconds of pure dynamic disco-delic punky psych… Wow… Of course, the scenery changes rapidly on the follow-up self-titled “100 DB”, a mystical psych-creep-a-delic liturgy begins, with a mood to experiment, the music is slow, pompous, the vocals are torturously spoken in a chant-like mode, the track is getting darker, colder, creepier while the keys are adding a progy touch, and all of a sudden, the key fiddle takes the lead driving the song into an amazing avant-garde psychic outburst! What a song progress!!! “Are you my enemy or are you with me… Come my friend”, this is how the next “Are You With Me” starts, the characteristic sound of the key fiddle creates a rather creepy avant-garde voodoo-ish soundscape, full of darkness, deep in psych… “Den Stora Karleken” is a slow sad melancholic and darker tune (yes, there is more darkness, out there) that evolves into a super Sax-lead psych anthem, launching the tune beyond ‘now’, beyond time… The short (1:42min) “Siri’s Hymn” comes next, this is a kind of strange gothic-like eerie gospel tune… The album comes to an end with the longest track (14:34min) “Lay Us High”, it starts in a dark creepy industrialized, and gothic-like way, slowly moving into a Psych avant-garde-ish atmosphere, it’s quite experimental and somehow you get a feel of some mysterious aura of the Highlands in the air, and as usual, when the key fiddle enters, the track steps into unknown territories, darker, this is a somehow scary side of experimental Psych (wow!!!)… In conclusion, Siri Karlsson, delivered a unique album, a different album, an album that mixes rock, psych, folk, pop, and jazz in a cool and rather ‘listenable’ experimental way, an oasis to nowadays Psych “scene” (if there’s any, but let’s leave this for some time later)… Grab it! TimeLord Michalis  

Tracklist