Unreal, we firmly believe that some secret factory is afoot in Icelandic and Scandinavian waters secretly hatching some kind of future world domination – the weapon of choice being music to allure you with. Once upon a time Fat Cat were savvy enough to tap into its deepening wells, a decade or more later and anything emerging from that region is served up with a quality assurance of perfection unmatched by any other community or record making …territory the world over.
So step up Rökkurró making a serious play for both hearts and minds courtesy of the release of a second set entitled ‘Innra’. Mum and Samaris are easily called to mind, as is a very youthful and innocent Kate Bush while you are there you may as well add Serafina Steer and Hafdis Huld (see the heart heavy ‘Killing Time’) to the list, we could go on. We’ve been a tad seduced at the disarming spectacle unfolding amid our ear space for Rökkurró’s ethereal ghostlights slenderly slipstream between passages of glacial folk and sepia dimpled noir sophistication (as on the slick cool seduction of the shadow adored ‘Borders’ which along with the spectral ‘Weightless’ had us in mind of Musetta).
The magic of Rökkurró is their ability to take you to some other place, a secret place hidden in the twilight hazes where enchantment and fairy tales are real, it where exists such treasures as the wood carved ‘Sigling’ where softly turned subtle Japanese motifs are found woven into their broad style spectrum. While the quite divine ‘The Backbone’ is shimmered in the kind of sighing romantic intensity that used to visit upon the grooves of platters by The Beangrowers. Somewhere else traces of atmospheric majesty daub ‘The in Between’ as it cautiously follows in the hallowed and stately footsteps once pressed upon by Sigur Ros while those foolishly thinking this is all frost tipped spectral pop perfection ought to swoon in your dancing shoes for the floor throbbing disco demurring ‘Hunger’ and as for ‘White Mountain’ – absolutely monumental and blistered in euphoria.
[Rating:4]
