(EDITOR'S NOTE: This article is the latest in the Sun-Gazette's ongoing Uptown Music Collective series. Collin Dennen is a UMC?student.)
My 17th birthday goes down as my greatest birthday since my canine-themed party when I turned 6 and we ate cake out of dog food bowls. On Sept. 15th last year, Akron/Family came to Site: B to play with Doc Mach and The Field Surgeons and two bands they were touring with. One of those bands was the Denmark-based, Slaraffenland.
Slaraffenland's performance blew me away and I ended up buying their CD, "We're On Your Side," which just had been released in America that day. Second to my ticket to the show, that album was the best gift I got myself!
The Danish word "slaraffenland" translates to "the land of milk and honey" in English. This title is very fitting for this band; its songs have this inherent sleepy-eyed, joyful feeling. The band members may very well be inspired by Copenhagen, the landscape they hail from.
"Long Gone," the opening track to "We're On Your Side," is the perfect prologue for the album. The song is about escaping some sort of violence and also puts everything characteristic about the band on the line. Slaraffenland uses auxillary percussion in a very unique way. In most cases in popular music, the drum kit is a separate entity to what is going on in the rest of the percussion ensemble, but in the case of Slaraffenland, it acts as a base from which all other percussion patterns are built. Hand claps, stomps, floor toms, shakers, tambourines and drum kits all interact to create one heavy and very dynamic groove. The breakdown on the track "Open Your Eyes" is Slaraffenland's percussive groove at its best. Next to the band's groove on this album, the group's vocal arrangements also are very unique and powerful.
Harmonized vocals have become very popular in the alternative music scene. Bands such as Fleet Foxes, Grizzly Bear and Akron/Family fill their sound with three-, sometimes four-part harmonies. Slaraffenland, however, favors two-part harmonies. What makes the band's vocals just as powerful as its contemporaries is that those two-part harmonies are doubled by each band member. Because all five members offer up their vocal talents, you often have three members just singing the melody while the other two sing the harmony.
The unison gives a very theatrical sound to the vocals. This also means there isn't necessarily a lead singer on many of the tracks. The song "Postcard" features several of the Slaraffenland personnel only singing the melody; there are no harmonized vocals. This sing-a-long sound fits the track very well - as it is a song about keeping friendships even over long distances. Another feature in this song is woodwind and brass arrangements. Each member is accomplished in more than one instrument, adding to the band's dynamic.
The whole idea and theme to "We're On Your Side" can be put into one word: community. The album is very aptly titled in that respect because every facet of the music is a group effort from the percussion, to the vocals, to the instrumentals, to the small brass and woodwind embellishments. The band - as a whole - works together in such a way that even the listeners feel that they are part of the music and knowing that you are included as a listener to this big team effort that is Slaraffenland makes you feel great!
