Snowpony
The Slow Motion World of Snowpony
Radioactive

Snowpony is sort of the kool "supergroup" of English indie-music. Katherine Gifford is an ex-member of Stereolab and Moonshake, Debbie Googe was the bass-player of My Bloody Valentine, and drummer Max Corradi has been in Quickspace and Rollerskate Skinny. Quite some resumé for one band.

Katherine Gifford formed Snowpony when she jumped off Stereolab, and after releasing a couple of singles in 1996, and the Chocolate in the Sun single last year, they're ready to present their debut album this autumn. The album title couldn't have been better - The Slow Motion World of Snowpony fits like hand in glove. The motion of the music of Snowpony is really slow and lazy. The first track is Easy Way Down, which was released as a single 2 years ago. Old stuff, eh? Anyway it's a cool song, and one of the better on this album.

Snowpony sort of mix dark and melancholy trip-hopish beats with jazzy moods, and in-between they throw in tape-loops with semi-noisy guitars and organs. The music is sort of a puzzle, and the lyrics are mostly from the sad and misty side. It seems like Snowpony is telling dark fairy-tales with unhappy endings. 3 Can Keep a Secret (If 2 Are Dead) starts with a slow and punky two-chord riff, before the rhythm breaks into the song. The album's best, and most desperate song is called St. Lucy's Gate. It's a circling melody, spinning like an antique merry-go-round with no-one on it. Quite spooky.

I must admit to be a little disappointed after listening to this record. I find the songs a bit to monotonous and anonymous. Maybe the motion is too slow, and the moods are too dark? Snowpony claims to "hung like horses, play like donkeys, kicks like a mule" (sic). I'm not sure about all that, but Snowpony is able to give you a couple of pleasurable rides.

Due to be released August 25th 1998.

Copyright © 1998 Håvard Oppøyen