Killer Label Profile
Origami Arktika/Tore H. Bøe/Birchville Cat Motel

From out of nowhere (well, from my editor, but since I've yet to meet him, it might as well be from nowhere), appeared this recent spate of seven inch singles from Norway, all connected in their love of archaic vinyl forms and hypnotic, warm, crackling sound succinctness. Colorfully constructed sleeves, with two of the three slabs pressed up on translucent purple and orange vinyl (BCM is on black), they show that the Norwegian Killer label just might have something good cornered, both locally and internationally.

Origami Arktika
At Røyspytten
Killer Records

Origami Arktika starts it off with insistent snare clicks, hovering bass, and echoing e-bowed guitars, all fading in and away with a voice that wavers, stitching in breaths and whispers so as to sound like low cold waves, washing ashore white angel wings. The B-side has more low pulses, giving it a shifting, watery foundation with guitar strings that shimmer and sliver along its surface, sometimes shivering in odd droplet shapes. They are currently opening up for The Legendary Pink Dots themselves, so check them out.

Tore Honoré Bøe
Knekk
Killer Records

Tore Bøe's "Knekk" commingles an old glitched tape with a flute on side A, and a harmonica on side B. The flute is quickly vaporized into a kettle steam whistle wind, with the jostling approach of frost-dripping giant steps, each footfall fissuring the thin ice. Thankfully, it never falls through, and in fact elevates, crunching along beautifully with a crystalline drone ending the side. The harmonica's gurgles join in with some frantic static and distress signals to build "Knekk" into an ecstatic, glowing whole. A surprise and the standout of the three.

Birchville Cat Motel
Crestfallen b/w Winters Crackling Glory
Killer Records

Killer imports the Kiwi sounds of one Campbell Kneale, aka Birchville Cat Motel, to round this particular package off, and he does some excellent rub-a-dub-dubbing on both sides. The violin, harmonium, and glottal "ahs" ripple like waves, washing the hands of one another in a bathtub not too dissimilar from Giusto Pio's droning tub drain. The water is almost rose-scented, yet immensely potable. Clean.

"Winters Crackling Glory" squeaks and scrubs at that telltale ceramic bathtub ring, rubbing it away with an extra-fine metal, making all the pipes groan and gurgle as the mildew and hard tile just melts away, effortlessly. Definitely getting somewhere from nowhere.

Contact: the Killer label, or:
Tore Honoré Bøe: "Knekk" (Killer 008);
Origami Arktika: "At Røyspytten" (Killer 009);
Birchville Cat Motel: "Crestfallen/Winters Crackling Glory" (Killer 010).

Copyright © 2002 Andy Beta