After losing all my money in a game of poker last night I came home and wanted to do a quick music post before I folded my day’s hand. I needed to wake up at 6:30 to catch my daily morning dose of Charlie Rose so I quickly dug straight into my usual sources where I normally find the best new music. With each passing minute I was getting more and more frustrated because nothing was turning me on, which is rare because I usually find something I like. Not this time though — maybe I was tired, but after searching for more than an hour even the most underground of the underground was all sounding the same!!! The deck, it seems, was stacked against me.
I gave up my hunt, got 5 hours of sleep, and woke up to discover an artist that has me boiling over with excitement this morning: Copenhagen’s own WHEN SAINTS GO MACHINE. I learned of them via the amazingness that is Boiler Room and their impressive archive of live sessions. The 42:00 mix you’re about to hear is one of the best damn things I’ve heard in ages, and will open your eyes to a band that I guarantee you is about to explode (NOTE: Boiler Room does not allow embedding, so you will have to click on the link below). Highlighted by the extraordinary vocals of Nikolaj Manuel Vonsild, their sound has one of the most fascinating structures I have ever heard: it’s chunky, it’s groovy, it’s dark, it’s bright, it’s complex, it’s unbelievably good. In my research I came across a terrific Quietus review of WSGM’s album Konkylie where they provide the following beautifully written description of the group and its lead singer:
“Nikolaj Manuel Vonsild’s weird palatal falsetto [and vocal style] garners many a comparison with the likes of Antony Hegarty or Arthur Russell, which isn’t wrong. However the soft corolla of synth pads and medieval backing-chants got me imagining something that doesn’t entirely make sense – a monk-habited Chubby Checker crooning to the stars in a twilit cloister. If that sounds hard to parse, I agree entirely. But it’s WSGM’s implacable aesthetic that makes them so compelling.” [You can read the entire review by visiting Quietus].
So without further ado I present WHEN SAINTS GO MACHINE Live In The Boiler Room. If you love it as much as I did you’ll want to pick up their latest album Konklyie on iTunes. For all things WSGM be sure to follow them on their blog, Soundcloud, MySpace, LastFM, and Facebook. For more consistently great discoveries of your own simply head over to Boiler Room. If you’re running short on time and can’t spare the full 42 minutes once you click on the link below, at least take a few minutes to check out some of the mix’s major highlights including the segments beginning at 6:20, 13:23, 21:31!!!, 30:24, and 38:00.
TO LISTEN TO AND DOWNLOAD WSGM’S BOILER ROOM MIX CLICK HERE.
