Kippi Kaninus: Happens Secretly
Kippi Kaninus: Happens Secretly
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By Darren Estwick. |  |
Monday, 05, Oct 2009 04:21
Brainlove, out October 5th.
In a nutshell...
Icelandic royalty aims to trump more famous brothers and sisters.
What's it all about?
Kippi Kaninus is hardly a name people will know, though it's likely one that won't be forgotten. He started small - working his way up through self-released material in Iceland - before touring with some of the greats in 2002 onwards, including Bjork.
Happens Secretly has been an album since 2005, though on a limited release; now with Brainlove Records, the well-respected artist hopes to fit right in with the label's aesthetic and slowly but surely take over Europe, assumingly from the north downwards.
Who's it by?
Kippi Kaninus - real name Gudmundur Vignir Karlsson - is an interesting guy. The one real photo of him online shows him to be an Alice in Wonderland-esque Mad Hatter crossed with the Johnny Depp version of Willy Wonka. Not that this is a bad thing; the guy manages to pull the look off.
Even if he didn't, the man's worked with Bjork, Sigur Ros, Amiina and Mum, which isn't bad for the resume. He's looking to outscore them, too. And why not?
Likelihood of a trip to the Grammys
Who could ever guess with a record like this?
What the others say
"Karlsson has crafted a masterpiece of twee electronica that hints at an ability for acoustic sounding instrumentation and an innate sense of classical composition." - Todd Burns, Stylus Magazine, on a previous release
"[Kippi Kaninus] works in - at times mysterious - organic electronica ways. Imaginative is another term fit to apply, as he is probably the only artist in history to have mic'ed an apple from the inside and then used the sound it created when eating it." - Thomas Brunstrom and Peter Krogholm, All Scandinavian
So is it any good?
Unnerving. That's the word that is best used to describe the opening of Kippi Kaninen's album. And yet it's so relaxing. Only one beat at the start of opening track The Comfort of my Eyes is consistent, with all kinds of chimes slowly laid over the top until nonsensical female vocals, which seem to convey more noise than words, language barrier notwithstanding, of course.
Still, it creeps you out. Slowly but surely, however, the experience becomes much more easy on the ears.
Without trying to sound like a ponce but failing miserably, Kippi Kaninus is one of the few artists who seems to have a pure connection to his music and as a result, you're able to tap into whatever vibes he's trying to put out. His music, from the first minute, not so much entertains as paints a picture of what he's thinking.
Following up the opener, Whyshouldtheyounghavefaith is the only really repetitive song on the album. Even if the strings are remarkably dramatic, it never lets up on the listener and can drag on, given the track is the second-longest of the release at 9:06. It's not bad, just one that seems to garner indifference.
A Soft Living Thing sounds like the kind of music you'd get in a Teutonic town in the Middle Ages, or any Sid Meier strategy game on the PC which is trying to portray a time before 1600 AD. It's a really weird effort but has a quality that can definitely be enjoyed if you put the music first; it sounds a bit strange if you're listening to it while doing a task of any real merit.
The repetitive singing never truly gets annoying, either; it just kinda works, though again to the weird vocal style Kippi embraces.
This Note Is -D is another strangely dystopian effort which encapsulates a pretty grim scene, whatever it may be. Again, it's so arresting because it makes you listen on. The song develops cleverly and unfolds into a much more approachable tune halfway through, with almost orchestral vocals complementing a watery scene, using the corresponding sound effects to a tee.
While Purer, Deader, Softer has a much more clinical technological approach with music, using the synthesiser in a heavily Kraftwerk-ish way towards the end to make it sound like a track of The Mix or Computer World, it is still very happy in an almost Disney way.
It sounds like a twisted cartoon factory making toy robots, essentially. Toy robots that sound like they're really fun to play with. As a result, instead of detracting from a more relaxed approach in the first half and then unsettling with synthesised effects in the second, it actually turns the method on its head and delivers something altogether more enjoyable with distortion.
Yfirskin takes the ethic of the previous song's technology but adds an unnerving and somehow Middle-Eastern lilt through vocals and instruments, as if al-Qaeda are in space. A crass comparison I know, though it's the only one that can genuinely explain it.
Refrain, to seal the album off, is admittedly not that great an effort. A white noise distortion in the background for the central part is a large segment of this, though the accompanying scratchy acoustic guitar and overpowering constant tones sound like you're being brainwashed, though you're not sure if it's mind-altering that's enjoyable or not. It hurts after about five-and-a-half minutes, even though the vocals try to bail you out by giving something to distract you from the rest.
Luckily, it gives way to something altogether more agreeable, using chimes and less-overpowering instruments to calm you down. It's almost a test of will, though, yet you'll probably listen all the way through because by this point, you'll've accepted that Kippi will happily change his direction in a song any number of times.
There's a bit of everything in here in terms of experimental electronica. There's a good share of Air's Premiers Symptomes, a big chunk of Sigur Ros (certainly Jon Dor Birgisson's Riceboy Sleeps effort) and other influences from number of dramatic classical-based film soundtracks.
It's atmospheric but also melodic, in the sense that such an experimental genre tends to go off the rails in other efforts and, as a result, can neglect the whole concept of holding a tune for a greater "vision".
Kippi doesn't shirk on certain emotions and can evidently connect with a large group of people due to this. One criticism is that it's music that needs a person to truly switch everything off but their ears, though it's always ten times better to have that instead of a nice-but-boring effort by the likes of Norah Jones or other faceless, yet talented, musicians who fade into the background, even with a concerted effort to listen.
It's hard to know where Kippi can go from doing music like this. I suppose that's his charm - something demonstrated particularly in Purer, Softer, Deader. He knows what he's good at, has fun and it's a genre he's got true passion for. Kippi executes it perfectly, in this sense.
8.5/10
Matt Gardner