release date: Mar. 10, 2012
format: digital (10x File, MP3)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,58]
producer: Rangleklods
label: self-released - nationality: Denmark
Track highlights: 1. "Clouds" - 2. "Empty" - 3. "Puzzlehead" - 4. "On Top" - 6. "Cough" - 10. "Beekeeper" (acoustic guitar version live)
Full-length studio album debut by Rangleklods follows only four months after the EP debut Home EP (Nov. 2011) and it was originally released on A:larm Music and on Austrian label Schoenwetter Schallplatten (later Ink Music) and available on bandcamp.
On this, Rangleklods is credited lyrics, music, recording, mixing, and production, and Rangleklods remains the solo project by Esben Nørskov Andersen; however, a few songs here have additional vocals by Pernille Smith-Sivertsen, and she would from 2015 take part in the project as a duo.
Despite being released only four months after Home EP it's evident that Rangleklods has progressed into a more melodic sphere, although maintaining an electronic foundation. Stylewise, it's touching on synthpop with inspiration from indie pop and industrial rock, which has both made the soundscape more dark but nevertheless also more mainstream - without being traditional pop. Where the EP made me think more of Danish band Veto and LCD Soundsystem, this one makes me think of Efterklang and Interpol mixed with Trentemøller, and the result is anything but mediocre. And really, where Efterklang is a full band, Rangleklods is (still) a one-man project, and yet Esben Andersen is both a fine songwriter, vocalist and skilled instrumentalist handling both electric guitar and electronic equipment.
Beekeeper makes Rangleklods a very promising name to look out for.
