Wildbirds & Peacedrums – The Snake

Starting off like a combination of Dead Can Dance and Native American tribal chants this Swedish duo soon, on third track ‘Chain Of Steel’, mellow things down to a Nina Simone-esque jazz vocal style backed only by xylophone and brushed snare. That’s a lot of bases to cover in a short space of time but ultimately it works and this is a great deal more listenable than my initial reaction to it suggested.

Comparisons could easily be drawn with Bjork but a fairer assessment is suggesting you imagine The Kills waking up one day and deciding to play world music – the underlying attitude is definitely punk in nature and the band are in a DIY class of their own. ‘Great Lines’, the sixth track, returns us to the high plains of the US west with its chanted vocal and drums-only backing, bringing to mind The Slits in the process. Halfway through though, with the introduction of lush percussion and bass, we enter Kate Bush territory.

This is the pair’s second album and it compare’s favourably with Heartcore, their debut. Whilst the sound is overall quite sparse it is never for a minute stark, indeed by the time we reach ‘Liar Lion’ there is definitely a sense of humour in evidence as the chanting degenerates into childish gobbledigook and the drums wash over it to the fore. ‘Who Hoho Ho’ moves proceedings further round the globe to Japan before the final, and longest, track ‘My Heart’ finds vocalist Mariam really opening up and getting quite emotionally charged.

They’re in the UK for the first week of April after doing SXSW so I’d suggest giving them a look – you probably won’t see another band quite like them all year.