Conquering Animal Sound...Kammerspiel

     Conquering Animal Sound, comprised of Anneke Kampman and James Scott, is a duo out of Glasgow and is receiving a lot of critical praise for their February 7, 2011 debut release, Kammerspiel. BBC reviewed the album as such: "By doing a lot of little things well, without making any grand gestures, Glasgow duo Conquering Animal Sound have here crafted a delightful debut album which tinkles and buzzes, chimes and crackles with real promise. It feels like a debut in the senses that one senses there’s plenty more to come – but at the same time, it’s a satisfyingly complete listen, a fully rounded full-length which rewards repeat listens with the discovery of charming new details and nuances." Fairly high words for a freshman LP, as most introductions are just tastes of the real genius a band is, most of the time, only able to produce after another album or two. The only other work offered thus far by Conquering Animal Sound is a single, "Bear/Plinch". Both are produced by Gizeh Records.
    German for "Intimate Play", Kammerspiel, is a fitting name for the album. Each track is a sublime form of ambient background, electronic loops and glitches, metallic chinks and clanks and the carefree child-like innocent singing voice of Anneke. Her voice is even immediately being hailed as a fitting counterpart to the likes of female experimental electronica pop singers Björk (particularly her earlier albums such as Homogenic--1997, and Vespertine--2001) and Karen Dreijer Andersson (known from Fever Ray,  electronic duo The Knife and former alternative indie band Honey Is Cool). As with Björk, are often split into multiple parts,  creating intricate harmonies and counter melodies too.
    If there is any criticism I might have of the record, it is that overall the tracks blend together because of fairly similar ideas, repetitive instrumentation and song structure. There are a few songs that delve a little deeper into a minor key, which is nice, "Bear" and "Neanderthal" for instance. Even so, most songs do not blossom naturally as they could; rather, they seem to shift in and then fade out as they came.
    Regardless, Kammerspiel is worth a listen or two. While the first might have you puzzled as to its true nature or beauty, subtlety, the second might find you rather enjoying Conquering Animal Sound. Listen through full songs too, as just flipping through does not do any justice. Check out the entire album here on Gizeh's website, streamed through SoundCloud. Nothing in the MixPod as I am again having difficulty with the file hosting site disappearing off the face of the internet and simply not loading (as you may have noticed many of the tracks in the MixPod are not playing off and on...) EDIT: started working again, check out probably my favorite track, the opener "Maschine" in the MixPod, which reminds me of Freelance Whales; anyway, enjoy!