Cropped album cover. This is Maskineri. This is a good new album, in my opinion. Read further down to know more!

Track list

1. Moment
2. Apokalyps meg
3. Den andre er meg
4. Bastard sønn
5. Maskineri
6. Toxic blod
7. 9mm
8. Volvo i Mexico
9. Enden av november
10. Med en gong eg når bånn
11. Kaizers 115. drøm
12. Ond sirkel

Genre

Rock, alternative, eclectic

Release

February 18, 2008

Label

Petroleum Records, Sony BMG

Background Information

Kaizers Orchestra is an alternative rock band getting their share of eclectic sound: It’s hard to compare them to anything around and you really have to listen to them to know what they are.

They’re coming straight out of Norway and have been around since 2000. They had a tiny special catchy touch that is hard to describe since their first album (Ompa til du dør, released in 2001) and that kept growing through songs like Di Grind (from Evig Pint) and that got even bigger with the album Maestro. Maestro had to be my favorite album from the Kaizers Orchestra and it made me have a lot of expectations for Maskineri, which got released just today.

I was slightly disappointed, quite possibly by my anticipation, to see that this little touch wasn’t as present as in Maestro; however, I find myself liking the album more and more every time I listen to it.

This little change can be explained by a few things:

In 2007, the band was contacted by record producer Mark Howard on MySpace. Howard had previously worked with R.E.M andTom Waits. Kaizers Orchestra came to an agreement with Howard, and he was hired as their producer. They also signed a deal with Sony BMG and Petroleum Records as their new label.

With Maskineri, the band stated that they wanted to go in a new direction, not only with the songs, but also with how the album was to be made and who to make it with. The band had recorded their three previous studio albums in Duper Studios, Bergen with the help of producer Jørgen Træen, whom they stated was the “best producer in the world”. Despite this, they decided to work with Mark Howard in the Planet Rock Studios in Berlin, Germany. (source)

The band also introduced the marimba as a new instrument (pretty much a big xylophone with resonators under it for those who do not know what it is), giving a new tint to some bits of their sound.

My Opinion

The album found a new durability in its sound: while it may not be as surprising as previous releases, I find it increasingly pleasing to listen to, and I like it more and more as I listen to it rather than instantly liking it.

The album starts slowly with the first 3 tracks, really easy to like, until Bastard sønn comes on. It’s a breeze from the past, something I can’t say I dislike: heavier percussions, bigger accentuation with the basslines, high-pitched singing at some points, unpredictable rhythm. To sum it up, an assortment of elements that makes Kaizers Orchestra who they are.

Maskineri starts with the Marimba introduction, giving the song a really mechanical ambiance (which fits, given “Maskineri” means “Machinery”) with the help of Rune Solheim’s percussive work. Granted, I don’t get a single word from their lyrics, but this is far from ever stopping me from liking it. The piece is a big mix of influences and dissonant styles melted together in a piece that stands for itself. Again, that’s nothing different from the past in how they do it, but the style is still different in how it sounds and feels.

The album as a whole may appear as if there’s a little more repetition than usual in the structures of each song, meaning the Kaizers may be trying to make their music more accessible to a broader public, although the instrumentation would prove it really hard to believe. Tracks like 9mm sound like they’re directly taken from an older album and packed with Maskineri, with some licks from the double-bass we wouldn’t have heard as much before. Even more? Enden Av November begins with a piano line that can remind you of Di Grind like no other song, but gets a completely different feeling from it. Kaizers Orchestra didn’t reinvent themselves or lose their roots, they just pushed their own content and style in a new manner, far from displeasing me.

Kaizers 115. drøm bugged me. It did for a while until I remembered how close to a song I already knew it was: Ani couni chaouani, the Iroquois lullaby. Call me crazy, but I think some parts in the chorus are really close, although it’s probably just coincidences and the habit of hearing the lullaby as a child. It kind of proves how far Kaizers Orchestra’s style can go; from alternative rock to eclectic near avant-garde sounds, down to old native lullabies resemblances (for some people?). Anyway, enough of this for this review, it makes me sound insane.

In Conclusion

At first, I thought this was not the exact same Kaizers as before, it’s not as good. With more listening, I find it to be a more than decent album: hard to compare to previous ones, possibly their best after Maestro in my opinion. Getting both albums would be a good idea for a newcomer in order to know the multiple faces the band can take. Kaizers Orchestra have this innate catchiness that you like, at the opposite of annoying earworms and they know how to exploit it in this new release.

Links in comments

Category: Reviews