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The Amazing – Picture You

VÖ: 10.04.2015
Artist: The Amazing
Titel: Picture You
Label: Partisan Records / Pias
Formate: CD, 2LP, Digital
Styles: Psychedelic-Pop/Neo-Folk

„PICTURE YOU“ ist das dritte Album des schwedischen Indiequintetts THE AMAZING. Vom englischen Mojo Magazin werden sie als "Créme des schwedischen Psychedelic-Pop/Neo-Folk-Undergrounds" gefeiert. The Amazing kombinieren ihre feinen Melodien und Songstrukturen mit frei fließenden Cinematic Sounds und schaffen mit ungebremster Improvisation eine berauschenden Platte. Ein Spektakel mit twangenden Gitarren, atmosphärischen Keyboards und einer Rhythmusgruppe die immer wieder in unerwartete Richtungen abdreht. Die meist in Mid-Tempo gehaltene Musik ist so überzeugend wie rätselhaft. Sie hat ihre eigene, einzigartige Textur und Klangfarbe und ist wohl am besten mit "psychedelisch“ zu umschreiben. Die ersten Songs auf "Picture You" weisen eine bemerkenswerte Harmonie auf und vermitteln in ihrer Unaufdringlichkeit und Schönheit Ruhe, Wärme und Kraft. Man denkt an Beach Boys und Byrds. Bis im Verlauf des Albums psychedelische Gewitter aufziehen und sich mit tosendem Lärm entladen, um sich am Ende wieder zu beruhigen und in Seelenfrieden auszuklingen.

So schön kann Winterdepression sein!


The Amazing Lives Up To Its Name on Picture You

The Band’s Free Flowing, Cinematic Sound Balances Focused Song Structures with Unbridled Improvisation To Create A Heady Genre Smashing Exercise In Sonic Exploration.

The Amazing inhabits an aural landscape that’s all its own: a panoramic, constantly evolving spectacle marked by layers of intertwining guitars, richly textured keyboards and a rhythm section adept at skewed tempos and a tendency to veer off in unexpected directions. It would take a shelf full of thesauruses to describe the Swedish quintet’s music, but one word that keeps reoccurring is “psychedelic,” a characterization that Christoffer Gunrup, the band’s singer, songwriter and guitarist, dislikes. “I hate the word,” he says. “I have no relation to psychedelic music or prog rock. Reine (Fiske, one of the band’s three guitar players) likes that prog stuff, and he’s very good with sounds, so he would be the one to blame for that.”

The mid-tempo music on Picture You has its own unique texture and timbre, but Gunrup, an ironic perfectionist who is always slightly dissatisfied with his work, would rather play music than talk about it. “I have no idea how to describe the songs [on any of my records]. I like and hate them all equally. If you theorize about the songs, it ruins the tension and passion. Just shut the fuck up and play, but play good.”

That’s just what the band did. Gunrup showed the band the songs before they went into the studio, but everyone improvised freely to bring the songs to vibrant life. “They do what they feel,“ Gunrup says. “If I were to tell them what to play, it would be a lot less interesting.” The album’s basic tracks were cut in three intense days of studio recording, then Gunrup and keyboard player Fredrik Swahn added overdubs and vocals.

The music on Picture You is as compelling and enigmatic as expected. Atmospheric keyboards, twanging guitars, and Gunrup’s anguished crooning float through the slowly intertwining melodies of “Broken”, concluding in a hushed pastoral interlude of voice and chiming guitars. “Safe Island” floats on a sea of reverb drenched feedback, while meandering clouds of hypnotic lead guitar ebb and flow through a vast sonic space, finally colliding with an avalanche of distortion, highlighted by clusters of playful interstellar keyboard. “British guitar stuff,” Grunrup says dryly. “Ride, My Bloody Valentine, Jesus and Mary Chain - not that this song is as good as theirs, but it evolved it that direction.”

Stuttering James Brown-like guitar accents and a laid back funk beat drive “Fryshusfunk.” It’s a long meandering piece that moves from funk to jazzy prog rock, with classical organ inflections and the hiss of cymbal splashes, to a dramatic metal-like climax where everything falls into a whirlpool of distorted bass, guitar and organ. “The Headless Boy” drops a bit of folky Nick Drake-like melancholy into the mix. Autumnal keyboards, whispering slide guitar and lovely acoustic strumming compliment Gunrup’s aching vocal harmonies.

“We’ve evolved our ability to play together,” Gunrup says, “but I don’t see that as a good thing. I think it’s important to not know what’s going on, to always be surprised. That’s why we can’t repeat ourselves, we need to change a bit, need to improve a bit – constantly - otherwise we will be bored to death.”

Christoffer Gunrup has been playing music all his life, a serious musician, with a modest, self-effacing approach. “I’ve played drums, trumpet and guitar from an early age, not that I was any good. I had a band at University that released four albums as Granada.” The band was known for its slow tempos, dreamy songwriting and the heartfelt vocals of Anna Järiven. They composed collectively, but Gunrup was also writing his own songs. “When Granada was put in the ground, I started playing alone and realized that I needed to howl on the songs myself to get them to sound as I wanted.” Gunrup enlisted guitarist Reine Fiske and former Dungen drummer Fredrik Björling and started playing dates. “I played guitar, Reine bass and I ended up with a microphone in my face. I had never sung before.”

When the trio needed a name, Fiske offered The Amazing, England 1969! He imagined the band as an obscure trio playing some unknown festival in England in 1969. “All band names are rubbish,” Gunrup says, “but if you like the music, any name is OK.”

At an early gig, an engineer from the Fashionpolice studio discovered The Amazing. He helped them record their eponymous album. After a few personnel changes, they made their second record, Gentle Stream. The band for Picture You also includes Fiske on guitar; Fredrik Swahn on guitar and keys; bass player Alexis Benson and drummer Moussa Fadera. “We play because we’re friends,” Gunrup explains. “It’s all about playing music and hanging out, recording songs and getting the songs into this thing we do, that we never speak about.”


The Amazing is:

Reine Fiske - Guitar

Christoffer Gunrup - Vocals, Guitar

Fredrik Swahn – Guitar, Keys

Alexis Benson - Bass

Moussa Fadera - Drums


Tracklist

1.Broken

2.Picture You

3.Circles

4.Safe Island

5.To Keep It Going

6.Fryshusfunk

7.Tell Them You Can’t Leave

8.The Headless Boy

9.Captured Light

10. Winter Dress


Web:

http://www.partisanrecords.com

http://www.theamazing.se

http://www.facebook.com/theamazing.swe


UK Quotes:

“Mostly majestic, ‘Picture You’ is as immersive as it is devotion worthy” – Loud And Quiet (8/10)

"The Amazing live up to their name in every sense...a warm, gorgeous introduction from the Swedish quintet" – DIY

“This is something you absolutely need to hear, so hear it” – Stereogum

"Picture You... is a generous two-songs-for-the-price-of-one deal, blurring dewy early-'70s soft-rock into Floydian prog pastorale (as to be expected from a band that features the guitarist from Dungen and counts Tame Impala as pals)" – Pitchfork

"The cream of Sweden's psychedelic/neo-folk underground” – MOJO

“A gorgeously understated blend of gentle psychedelic pop, tranquil folk rock and gently stoned prog” – Q


Studio documentary:

Cover

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