Slaraffenland: We're on Your Side (original) (raw)

"It's only a state of mind," went the tagline for Terry Gilliam's dystopian masterpiece Brazil. "Slaraffenland" is something of a state of mind, too. The word is apparently Scandinavian for "land of milk and honey," and while the Danish band of the same name is hardly all sunshine, it is indeed something of a world unto itself-- a vision of musical synthesis that borrows from any number of influences and constructs those raw materials into something new.

Admittedly, that describes countless other style-blender bands. What sets Slaraffenland apart is the way the collective tends to avoid easy discord and dissonance and assembles often-disjointed pieces into something downright serene, even peaceful. We're on Your Side, the group's third album, falls on the less rigid end of the chamber-pop spectrum-- downbeat but not dour, reveling in the sweet spot between structure and open-ended art-rock exploration.

Put in more specific terms, the album sounds like Brian Eno fronting a more pastoral National, the familiar despondent tone and gentle melodrama of the latter intact, but the vocals a measured hum of collective call and response and warm intonation. To this Slaraffenland add unpredictable (but not distracting) percussion, mournful (but not brash) brass, and several striking but subtle embellishments ringing, swooshing, droning, and chiming away in the background, placing songs such as "Meet and Greet" or "The Right Place" in a compelling purgatory between drift and uplift.

It's experimental music, to be sure, but it doesn't conflate experimentation with alienation. Even on a song like "Falling Out", where the band casts away most familiar pop frameworks, the track's elliptical appeal pulls you in rather than pushes you away. This holds true as well when the minimalist industrial bricolage of "Open Your Eyes" begins to transform itself halfway through, working toward an inspiring resolution with trance-inducing drums and a circular guitar pattern that turns the song inside out.

"Away" ends the album on a sleight-of-hand note, like the punctuation mark to a wonderful tone poem that leaves the listener quietly pondering just what made the preceding music so special. After all, making scary noises and offering carefully crafted unease will always be fashionable. Offering something this open and hopeful, on the other hand, is a much tougher prospect, but as strange as Slaraffenland can be, there's little doubt the disc does just that. Let others point out the looming apocalypse. Slaraffenland see the massing clouds, but would rather focus beyond them, all the way to the stars.