Recipement: Civil police – « A man without references »
Contrary to what the title says, civil police debut album is packed with references. Only the name is a reference to Robert Musil, and during the ten songs it can be made with flashes for both Karin Boye and Carola.
It is approximately in That span, from fine literature to folk homes, as a civil police move. The anonymous Stockholm -based group, which describes themselves as « Sweden’s largest tape to the number of members », but where the core group consists of four very young musicians, is actually more a conceptual art project.
About a year ago, they recorded and burned a record live in front of the audience at a bar at Södermalm, an evening that was theoretically framed by the invented French music anthropologist Cul D’Connard. When they now do something as conventional as releasing an album, it happens outside the large music platforms. « A man without references » can only be heard by paying the creators and buying the plate, digital or analog. In connection with the release, they have also launched their own streaming service, with associated manifesto.
In terms of style is civil police An exquisite meeting between the British 90s and Swedish 80s. Prodigy’s raw breakbeats meet the Stockholm manner with associate professor death. Their pop-political humor, on the other hand, has more in common with Dr. Kosmos. The protests against the New Public Management Society’s measurability requirement for beauty (« We tried to calculate the price of a sunrise/and now it refuses to go up », which they sing on the surprising ballad « a fragile thread ») is translated in practice through what may be best described as cultural attacks.
But the sometimes slightly jealous performance plants never overshadow the music, which is uninterrupted, engaging cerebral autotunpunk in the uptime, with an unhappy self -distance that cancels the tired distinction between irony and seriousness. On the record they have taken the commitment of Sweden’s largest band on, precisely, seriously and invited everyone from Konst AB to Johanna Svensson and Tom Alandh to participate. « A man without references » is a collective manifestation that the real innovation must be done in opposition.
Best track: « Spring », « Evolution »
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