Having seen them twice in a couple of days last February I’ve been anticipating Oslo’s Das Body’s debut album ever since. Then they seemed to disappear, writing on their Facebook page on 24th April, “Today we were supposed to release our debut album. Unfortunately we were unable to do this, due to (several) unforeseen circumstances, but believe me when I say we have some hot hot new music. Unable to keep it to ourselves for much longer we'll be releasing a single in a little while. Stay tuned, friends.”
They popped up again on 23rd June with the release of that new single as promised, ‘On Request’, then announced this month the album, entitled ‘Peregrine’ would be released on 20th November, sharing along with that news, another new single, ‘Scared.’
The album has been produced by Jorge Elbrecht (Sky Ferreira, Ariel Pink).
I’m not sure about ‘On Request’ which is in a different style to their usual one but if ‘Scared’ istypical of the album it will be a belter. Literally. Driven by some of the most impressive synth sounds coming out of Norway right now (and that’s saying something) and an oscillating rhythm section,you’ll soon be on your private dance floor and oblivious to whether anyone is watching or not.
As If the musical component isn’t compelling enough then there’s Norway’s most dramatic contemporary front woman, the incredibly angular Ellie Linden, whose forearms are the length of most people’s legs and who makes Fiona Apple look like Humpty Dumpty.
Because they are such a dramatic live band I’ve included two videos here, the official ‘studio’ one and the second what they describe as a ‘live rehearsal’ one as they have no shows booked right now. It won’t take long to conclude that not only can they replicate the recorded version when playing live’; like all great bands they can actually better it.
In the live one Ellie, who turns out in her street gear, reminds me very much of a young Debbie Harry.
I rate this band very highly and have done since I first came across them a couple of years ago. I watched the Mercury Prize on TV this week, and even though I haven’t heard the album in full yet I’ll wager that were Das Body British or Irish they’d have given the winner Michael Kiwanuka and the other Mercury contenders a run for their money.
But you really have to see them live. Norwegians won’t have to wait long. Gigs are going ahead in Norway and have been for some time. We’ll have to wait until the next decade by the look of it.
Studio version:
Live version:
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