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Services

Last time the american metal-inspired experimental dance act Services toured � with good friends Yeah Yeah Yeahs � they made a pact as usual: �To devastate�. This time, the day before they head out on a brief stint in Europe, they have yet to form their tour pact, but suggestions are on the table: �To self destruct�? �To self deprecate�? No agreement is reached, but the ball keeps rolling back to the word �impact�.

Breakbeat - � rise and stagnation of the breakbeat

In the wake of the breakthrough of jungle during the years �94 � �96, an astounding upheaval happened on the most trendy, self consciously experimental part of the electronic music scene. From being something rather looked down upon, cut up breakbeats were all of a sudden seen as the way forward, and people previously having profiled themselves as creators of intelligent dance music, had to turn to exactly the kind of dance music they used to distance themselves from, to find inspiration. Not only proclaimed eclectics of the Aphex Twin-school reacted, even ambient bigwigs like The Orb and Mixmaster Morris found it necessary to incorporate breakbeats in their otherwise highly laid back style. Mostly, though, this seemed more like lack of inspiration, and at best superfluous seasoning in music that at heart remained pretty much the same.

The Microphones - - an interview with Phil Elvrum from The Microphones

�Are there any questions?� Anyone who�s been to a Microphones concert � aka the American Phil Elvrum � will know this remark, which almost certainly will be said at some point. Even repeatedly. Many have probably felt a certain surprise towards this dialogue with the audience � something one would rather expect during a lecture than at a rock concert. However, there is plenty to ask this man; the 24-year old artist has been known for a long while as an ambitious, crooked and original musician, the master of simple and naked songwriting as well as imaginative sound collages and daring studio experiments. Furthermore, he directs a great deal of his seemingly endless creativity towards book publishing, photography, paintings and more. On top of all this, he�s recently become a very able javelin thrower! During Elvrum�s latest visit in Aarhus, Geiger showed up with a heap of questions. It lead to a talk about traveling, life as a hermit, samurai philosophy and the magical wonders of the recording studio.

M�m - - interview with M�m�s Gunnar �rn Tynes

It�s a quiet afternoon in March and outside heavy snowflakes are falling from the sky. Gunnar �rn Tynes, member of Icelandic band M�m � who since their last album has been reduced to being a trio as Kristin Anna Valt�sdottir is taking time off from the band to finish her music studies � is in Copenhagen to talk about the band�s new album, Summer Make Good.

Martin Hall - - a consumer�s guide to Inskription (�Inscription�)

When punk hit the Danish capitol Copenhagen in the late 70�s, it became a catalysing factor in the formation of a much more experimental and fertile musical environment, which reached its artistic peak in the early 80�s. Leaving the original �three chords and the truth�-dictum of the punk scene behind, a vast number of bands, solo artists and musical workshops started exploring a huge variety of musical possibilities to take this influence to a new level of application. And then again: Punk did create a new sense of musical anarchism � but the nihilistic impulse, which tended to follow the angry roar of punk almost everywhere, also trapped many of the Copenhagen bands in a pseudo-goth identity, making most of the releases from this period sound fairly ridiculous today. Very few of the post-punk artists were able to infuse their material with enough originality and honesty to transcend that point in time � notably the darkly psychedelic rock group Sort Sol, the art-rockers Klich� (who came from a similar scene in Aarhus, Jutland) and Martin Hall.

Alternate Records - - a portrait of Alternate Records

Even though the small Copenhagen record company Alternate Records is a relatively new phenomenon, it is one of the Danish underground scene's fastest rising, guiding lights at the moment. In less than three years it has efficiently marked itself as a consistent project in both colourfulness and quality, a project that equally cultivates ambiguity, absurdity and the progressive impulse.

Albums of the Year 2003

Honouring tradition time has come for Geiger to select the best albums of the year 2003 � this is the the third year we attempt to make such a list. As a reaction to the fact that we often suffered heart pains from leaving out too many excellent albums this year we�ve decided to add another 20 albums to the list, giving a total of 50 albums to enjoy. These 50 albums in alphabetical order may not be more than half the truth about modern music, but the greater number allows us to reach corners that may have been neglected in the selections of the past few years!

The Cure - The Cure live at Roskilde Festival 2001

The night before the 1st of july 2000: A crowd of confused but motivated party people are waiting at The Cure in front of the main stage at Denmarks� largest summer festival: Roskilde. Of course everybody has seen the chaotic footage from the preceding Pearl Jam concert at the large screen in front of the stage � including moving pictures of one particular kid, who fought his way out of the crowd with blood streaming from almost every possible place on his body � but it seems like everybody regards it as a case of the usual festival damage: Open wounds, fainting, even broken ribs but nothing really serious. No matter what, expectations are running high when the next band, The Cure, is expected to take over the stage after delivering one of the finest albums of their career: The then recent Bloodflowers.

Will Oldham - An essay about the songwriter and eccentric Will Oldham.

America is easy to get lost in. Both geographically in the wilderness and mentally. This makes it a place where eccentricities and extremes thrive which can be noticed in the American music. One of the more interesting musical acquaintances in recent times is the songwriter Will Oldham � a shabby character whose lyrical universe looks naivistic but it splits into labyrinths of meanings and paradoxes. Rasmus Steffensen will try to paint a portrait of the man and his music in this essay.