Gabbarein – Ra Rising Sun
Similar artists: Wardruna, Sigur Rós, Rúnahild, Björk, Fever Ray
Genre: Gothic / Dark Wave, Alternative Rock
When it comes to modern music, no place where this is made seems more alluring or mysterious than the frozen North of Europe. To casual listeners, the musicians who create these sounds are nothing less than Nordic shamans, people who have accessed some kind of deep truth that they are spoon-feeding to their audiences.
That’s a marvellous image to have, but it’s not entirely true. In fact, to cynics the same music is also represented by Icelandinc band Sigur Ros inventing a language for their lyrics that consists mainly of the word “aye.” Or, they could point to the pseudo-spiritual metal coming of Norway and Sweden that sounds like music written for “Vikings” and declined for use by their producers. Yeah, not all of it is a winner.
Creating this kind of Nordic spiritual-rock requires some earnestnes. Gabbarein’s “Ra Rising Sun” has that. It’s an exploratory piece of music utilizing traditional elements and, naturally, evoking the spirit of the Norwegian forest. That in itself might not help differentiate them from the host of other groups doing this, but the sound does. You’ll need a bit of patience, and the willingness to get lost in this, but you will be rewarded.
PLANT – Dan Negru
Similar artists: Red Hot Chili Peppers, Partizan, Travka, The Strokes, Blur
Genre: Punk, Post-Punk, Garage Rock
It doesn’t take a dating guru or an NLP expert to tell you that smiling helps you make friends. Or, at the very least, it helps with letting people know that you’re not out to harm. People are used to it. They respond to it in the same way that fans of television comedies react to a laugh track. Hear one long enough and you’ll burst out laughing each time you hear one, whether you understand the joke or not.
Modern rock music works much in the same way. The majority of it is really serious, and you instinctively know that getting through it will be a chore that will use up a lot of brain processing power. But there’s a small chunk of it that is not serious, that’s jokey, and that allows you to crack open a smile and relax your mind from having to deal with math-rock riffs and lyrics about asteroids crashing into Earth.
PLANT like rock music, but not to the point that they’d sacrifice years of their lives learning scales or trying to adapt Lord of the Rings to music. They’re not those kinds of losers. No, they like to have fun, play songs to amuse each other and with “Dan Negru,” write tunes about beloved Romanian television hosts. Yes, this is the equivalent of meme-rock, but it’s pretty darn entertaining. And I bet you won’t even need to understand the words to be in on the joke, eh?
