Hedvig Mollestad Trio (Photo by Julia Marie Naglestad)
It’s Thursday and that means one thing, Unknown Pleasures is here with your guide to all things sonically subterranean, Getintothis’ Mike Stanton and Peter Guy search for buried treasure.
Oslo’s explosive Hedvig Mollestad Trio are difficult to catagorise, they span psychedelic, progressive rock and everything in between.
The single Beastie, Beastie from the the disconcertingly named forthcoming album Smells Funny is a near six minute odyssey into pure freak-out rock. Hedvig Mollestad Thomassen‘s dominating guitar cuts channels through Ellen Brekken‘s propulsive bass and Ivar Loe Bjørnstad‘s splashy drums, transporting us back to the hedonism of epic 70’s rock. There is a grand sense of drama in the storming guitar solo, which implores us to get our groove on.
Smells Funny will be their seventh album and it promises enough riffing to please headbangers and headphone dwellers alike. Exploring avant-jazz improvisations, metal, hard rock and pumping blues, Smells Funny continues the sound and style of their previous album Black Stabat Mater.
With a range of influences from Black Sabbath and Jimi Hendrix to John Coltrane and contemporary jazz and metal music, it is unsurprising that they are tricky to pigeonhole and continue to evolve and innovate.
Smells Funny is out January 18, 2019 via Rune Grammofon.
Gig guide: Christine and the Queens, Pigs X 7, LUNA, Boy Azooga, Mark Sultan and more
TWO
Two are a song writing duo comprised of Alfie Jackson (ex Holloways frontman turned songwriter/producer) and playwright and performer Gemma Rogers. Mixing dark folk with shadowy lyrics, the music ebbs and flows through very murky waters. Their debut single Angels is due for a December release.
There’s a brooding and restrained power to the song giving it an overall bluesy doom-laden feel.
“Angels was only the 2nd song we’d ever written” notes Gemma. “Nursing hangovers on a Saturday morning we shared our saddest stories and came up with the opening line “I’m never going back”.There is undoubtedly a tension between the two vocals, adding a dueling element as the music ebbs and flows through very murky waters.
Angels is released on December 14.
Nikki and the Waves are another of those collectives LIPA has reliably fused together over recent years – and this one specialises in ebullient pop bursting with brass, big hooks and bracing pop.
But behind the cheery facade lurks a darker message with a damaged inner centre – melancholia and somewhat mournful message keeps you guessing. They’ve been popping up around Merseyside with a variety of gigs – expect to see much more of them entering into the new year.
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