STAY ALI ‘VAT:AUHLAU’ EP

Music | jon.ramsay | May 26, 2010

It’s a bit of a cliché to suggest there’s ‘something in the water’ in Scandinavia, some secret additive that helps explain the unnatural beauty/height/musical prowess (delete as appropriate) of all those Nordic types…

However, since we’ve never let pride get in the way of some good old hackneyed bloggery, may we be the first to suggest that the extreme awesomeness of Swedish youngsters Bård Ericson, Elias Smeds, and Johan Vati Graden is all down to some Chinatown-esque water contamination business.

Nonsense of course, but the conspiracy theory angle is a good one when writing about Stay Ali’s new EP ‘Vat:Auhlau’ (out yesterday on Technofavrik, the label co-owned by none other than Monsieur Adi). Here the band explain why:

“Vat:Auhlau is a story we made up about a catastrophe/conspiracy caused by the state, who are trying to keep it a secret. Thousands of civilians were killed in this experiment that got way out of control . The authorities have managed to keep truth from unfolding, until now, when three kids discover the Vat:Auhlau area.”

Exciting stuff then. Almost as exciting as the music itself, which charts a choppy, pitch-bent course through slow-mo kraut disco, Balearia, glitch and synth pop. It’s sunny and spacey but not overly so, working in enough uneasy moments to make it an engaging listen from a band that should garner a lot of attention over the coming months.

We’re only posting lead track ‘97’ at the request of the band, so do yourselves a favour and head on over to your favourite digital retailer for the full EP. All the inclusions are very worthy, but we think ‘Auhlau’ ranks as their best track to date – an off-key epic that captures the subject matter of death, destruction and shadowy governmental cover-ups very well indeed. Check it out on the myspace here. Remixes on this one are courtesy of Owl Vision and Datassette.

Stay tuned for more from Stay Ali, as we’re proud to announce that the guys will be contributing number three in our brand spanking new Tashcast series next month. It’s guaranteed to be golden!

MP3 STAY ALI – 97

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