If TV show The Killing signalled Denmark’s emergence as a bleak-yet-potent visual powerhouse, post-rockers The Shaking Sensations provide a soundtrack for that nation’s new confidence. Operating in territory explored by Oceansize, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Mogwai, this Copenhagen five-piece offers something distinctively Danish – severe, frosty and intimate.
The band use the familiar armoury of their genre – jarring rhythms, simple picked melodies and extended instrumentals – and on album highlight Our Hearts Were Young And Gay the melodic contrasts soar. Several tracks, including Glass Wings, are as austere as a Lutheran priest, but remain elegantly beautiful.
The term ‘dreamlike’ is overused, but these instrumentals deserve it, and lest anyone imagine The Shaking Sensations are shoegazers, the magnificent closer Homage To Boyhood is crushingly dense. Their embrace of post-rock’s minimalist stylings precludes genuine innovation, but their fuzzy meditations brilliantly conjure frustrated hopes and longings.
For those sceptical about the notion of this genre, these young Danes may prove it’s territory with possibilities yet to be mined.
