Ok here's a strange one for you, Danish band Pinknoizu, while undoubtedly European is actually named after two Japanese words that mean pink noise. How they came up with that is beyond me, but it's kind of cool in a cross cultural global community sort of way. Their record, Peep, is really anything but pink noise. In fact, Peep is actually a better description of the record than the band probably realize.
While Peep obviously has some noisy elements within its realm, most of the album is minimalistic, muffled and rather distant. If Spiritualized were depressed this is pretty much what they would sound like. That might sound gripping but it isn’t. While some of the material on Peep is intriguing I was a little underwhelmed by the record overall. The record is unabashedly atmospheric and the guitars and vocals seem to waft in like waves of smoke. Its wispy stuff that lingers on and on and on and with many of the songs crossing the six minute mark, it's easy to see why. It's expansive exploratory stuff that seems lost in it's own little world. As I mentioned Peep seems to be an appropriate name for this record because there's so little noise or ruckus to be found on this record.
Peep is a record worth listening to. It's noodling and airy nature is fascinating and at times the keyboard and guitar interplay is intriguingly cool but most of this record just quietly ebbs and flows without you even noticing it. Whether or not Peep is worthy of repeated listening will come down to your tolerance for strange post rock experiments in the great beyond. Pinknoizu aren't bad but with that name I was really expecting all kinds of guitar wrangling and musical fireworks and not ambient post rock vistas. I feel kind of let down.
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