Sofi Lofi
Sweet Lucid Lou + Frantic b/w I Bet You Don't Know
Fat People Are Harder To Kidnap Records

Young and fresh quartet Sofi Lofi's debut record is a 3-song 7" single. The Sofi players are: Mette Sofie (guitar, vocals), Catty Stone (bass, backing vocals), Christian Næss (drums), and Handmade Records' head Kenneth Amundsen (guitar). The three songs were recorded live in studio last summer, assisted, supervised and recorded by Øystein Sandsdalen (Thee Unmist, Le Corbeau, Serena Maneesh, Izakaya Heartbeat - the latter along with Kenneth), and the songs were mastered by the human perpetuum mobile and creatively unstoppable Kramer (I guess we don't need to present his curriculum vitae). The single is released on the label 'Fat People Are Harder To Kidnap Records', which must be one of the funniest label names around. No offence to fat people. We don't have to be politically correct all the time. Fat is funnier and indeed more picturesque than, say, "corpulent, portly, comfortably stout, plump, or chubby people".

Sofi Lofi's own description of their musical style and attitude is: '...discordant, experimental, with an attraction towards the unpolished...'. They also bag, or label themselves as being in some genre called 'blues in an ice cream cone', which sounds quite exciting, appealing and for sure should tickle your curiosity. Sofi Lofi are lo-fi, hence their name. "Sweet Lucid Lou" starts as a lo-fi Mazzy Star, being rather dark, low-toned and in a minor key. It's quite an appealing song. "Frantic" is not as frantic as the title implies, but it's got a rawer, 'wilder' - like in rock music - expression than the first track, sounding like a song that could've been taken from one of the first albums by Siouxsie and the Banshees (with an exception for the goth'n'roll of the hyper Siouxsie).

The flip-side track, "I Bet You Don't Know" follows the path of the songs from side A, being sort of a blend of the two. This is the weakest, most anonymous song of the single. And, even if all three songs aren't of top-notch quality, they do have enough charm and characteristics to give this single (and the band) 'thumbs up'. Support your local rock act.

The single is limited to 300 copies: 200 on black vinyl, and a hundred red ones.

Copyright © 2013 Håvard Oppøyen