When Saints Go Machine
Konkylie (!K7)

Here's what reviewers had to say about When Saints Go Machine's debut EP, "Fail Forever," released this past January:

"glistening electro-orchestral compositions"
(Drowned In Sound)

"a well-positioned crossroads between Arab Strap's glum synths and strings and the gentle grooves of 'Bodily Functions' era Herbert" (Fact)

"an uptempo adventure into the possibilities of combining orchestrated, melancholy pop with a dance music bed" (XLR8R).

There's something in all those observations, yet none fully captures what When Saints Go Machine are about.

All childhood friends who grew up in the same neighborhood in Copenhagen, the Danish four-piece — Nikolaj Manuel Vonsild (vocals), Jonas Kenton (keyboards), Simon Muschinsky (keyboards) and Silas Moldenhawer (drums) — are a complicated mix of influences. There's dance music in there, for sure, but also post punk, some experimental electronica in the Aphex Twin mold, and, crucially, a healthy dose of pop. You could describe the end result as a heady mix of Caribou, The Knife/Fever Ray and Arthur Russell. But, really, it doesn't sound like anything else out there.

When Saints Go Machine began playing together as a band in 2007. They started out making dance music, but quickly left four-four beats behind and started fusing electronics with pop melodies. They caused a local stir when Danish radio picked up some tracks the band had uploaded onto MySpace, and soon after, found themselves playing their first ever gig at one of Copenhagen's leading venues, Vega. In 2009 they went on to win the Danish National Radio Talent Of The Year Award. Fast-forward to this year, and they had the fantastic experience of opening the Roskilde Festival in front of 45,000 people.

The band's debut album, Konkylie, (Danish for "conch shell" incidentally), has been two years in the making, and it sees them moving their sound into new, uncharted territory. On "Parix," Nikolaj's spectral vocals, a mix of Antony Heggarty's tremulous falsetto and Talk Talk frontman Mark Hollis, are pitched against a shimmering mirage of synths. There's an echo of their clubland past on "Kelly," which is underpinned by a chugging, mid-paced beat. It's the jumping off point for four-minutes of electro pop perfection, like Empire Of The Sun with some added Scandinavian cool. Nikolaj's vocals, meanwhile, are never more beautiful than on the closing track "Add Ends," where they float over skillfully orchestrated strings and gently popping electronics. It's an atmospheric reverie that transports you to another place. All told, it's stunning stuff, esoteric, yet instantly accessible, the kind of underground record that everyone can enjoy.

One of the things setting When Saints Go Machine apart from their peers, is the warmth in their music. They went to great lengths to inject an organic feel into the record, experimenting with new recording techniques and locations, as they wanted to avoid that rectilinear-Cubist-painting-like feel that can sometimes prevail in electronic music. All the vocals on the title track and album opener, "Konkylie," were recorded outside in such unlikely spots as a tunnel and a forest. Then there was the assemblage of effects they created to instill a random element into proceedings. "We had this set-up of effects that we ran sound through -- tape echoes, other effects and synths. We'd control one element each and we'd mess around," explains Nikolaj.

Konkylie is a dense, at times complicated record, partly due to the fact that they've spent so much time on it, but also because it's a product of the four members different music influences. "Our musical backgrounds are so different from each other. Jonas and Silas are from a clubby background and they still make house and techno together as Kenton Slash Demon; Simon's is jazz and neo soul; and I'm somewhere in between, '60s and '70s breaks, bands like Broadcast and The Slits and White Noise. That's why there are so many elements in there — dance, post-punk, classical. But it's hard to pick out tracks and connect them to one particular song. I think that's a good thing."

And if it's been a difficult, at times protracted process, the band is convinced it's been worth it. "We're really pleased with the album," says Nikolaj. "All the songs fit together more than anything we've done up to this point. A lot of details we left in the songs from earlier versions. I think it gives the record a sense of many layers. The arrangements are bigger and better. It's more evolved all around."

True enough. When Saints Go Machine: you've never heard anything like them.

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