Eerie is one man, Eric Obo, who splits his time between Sweden and St. Helier, Jersey in England’s Channel Islands, who’s gathered his friends to create an intimate recording. His self-titled EP, offered here in its entirety courtesy of the generous Komakino label, is what I like to call whispercore at its finest. It opens with a straight forward acoustic track, a country-western Elliott Smith type thing, with just a hint of distortion swelling in late in the song. “In the Twinkle of an Eye” is about as upbeat as you can expect from Eerie, and equally as noisy. Which isn’t much. Obo’s languid vocals linger below sliding chords and gauzy guitars. Here his voice takes on a new wave air which adds an interesting dimension to the track. At the bridge he slows the pace and turns up the distortion. Coupled with this heat wave we’re experiencing out here in lower California Eerie has loosened my bones and I find myself melting into my chair…Ladies and gentlemen we’re slowly diving into space…
Mikrofisch
Mikrofisch is our first entry from the Hamburg net-label, Komakino. Their album, Masters of the Universe, represents the label’s first full-length release (the band’s second) and you can download it, in its entirety, here. Mikrofisch formed with the intention of covering The Smiths, but left their first recording session with four original tracks and “a brilliantly intimate lo-fi version of Morrissey´s Everyday Is Like Sunday on fourtrack.” Five years later Mikrofisch remains brilliantly lo-fi, and brilliantly playful, but from what I gather, this long distant recording duo (London/Hamburg) backgrounded their guitars around 2003 and opted for a synth-based sound. The first song, “Drum Machines Will Save Mankind” serves as a kind of mission statement for Mikrofisch in their understated quest to take over the musical universe: “Make a beat so we can dance, make the kids form bedroom bands.” Then Mikrofisch sets their alliances, forming their own Justice League of Indie Rock, in the tongue-in-cheek “Let’s Kiss and Listen to Bis” (hip, indie reference help). The band name drops some of their favorite bands and sounds circa 1995: Teenage Fanclub, Dinosaur Jr, Afghan Whigs, Sonic Youth, Twee, and an allusion to the now defunct March Records (“Keep Sparky’s dream alive…). Finally, it’s the micro-epic “The Kids are All Shite” in which Mikrofisch battle the current UK indie scene including HMV, NME, Coldplay, Keane, Kaiser Chiefs, Kasabian, Jet, Razorlight, their clones and fans. Delusions of grandeur? Perhaps, but Mikrofisch’s small and simple sounds are brimming with enough hooks and wit to bring their great dreams to life.