Heat and White: “Standing Wave”
May 14, 2012
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Olof Persson of Swedish duo Broken Boys made quite a splash this past week with Sea-Through, the first release of his solo material under the name of Heat and White. Where Broken Boys favor inventive sampling and passive aggressive beats in their ominous tunes, this new project relies on a more relaxed palate of sounds reverb heavy guitar and reliably punchy drums. It’s highly conversant with the always trendy “beachy” guitar jam and semi-Balearic Nordic tropicalia, while still managing to do its own thing. The track “Standing Wave” is a simultaneously more complex and pop friendly adaptation of the musical element of Persson’s conceptual multimedia project Stående våg, which translates as, you guessed it, standing wave. The track’s wafts of highly melodic guitars, pianos, and melodicas (?) mesh beautifully, as barely controlled synth arpeggiations threaten to break the song’s delicate balances. Our advice: put on some good headphones, direct your eyes at the ceiling, and let the track evolve.
Sea-Through is now available from Zeon Light
Written by Luke Carrell
Tags: broken boys, heat and white, malmo, Olof Persson, Reviews, Sweden, zeon light
Reviews
Olof Persson of Broken Boys recently made a contribution his musical and video talents to a multimedia art exhibition. The piece is titled “Stående våg” [translation: Standing Wave] and is intended to be viewed while lying down on on a bed and staring up at the projected video, while listening to the music on headphones. Musically, the piece’s reverb-laden guitar rolls distinguish it from the Broken Boys’ previous material, while glitchy synth filters in to fill the gaps. The visual component seems to perfectly capture the comfy malaise of an evening spent in front of the TV, a situation that mirrors the suspended state of activity that of the title, even during such a, quite literally, pregnant moment. The artist has this to say about the piece:
Waves are transporters of energy. A standing wave can occur when two waves meet. For the eye, it can appear as the resulting wave isn’t moving. Still, particles are moving, forces are acting. The video/music is trying to say something about daily life. Like the standing wave, the scene in the video may also appear as more or less still, almost dead. Still, cells are divided as we are watching, love is shared. Important things are happening, life changing things.
Short of recreating the piece for yourself at home, we suggest taking a few deep breaths and enjoying this semi-voyeurisits, tungsten lit world for a few minutes, before getting back to your own.
Broken Boys’ Heat and White is now available for free streaming, pay what thou wilt download, and purchase as a CD on Bandcamp
Written by Luke Carrell
Tags: broken boys, Olof Persson, Reviews, Sweden
