Je Suis Animal
Self-Taught Magic From a Book
Lost and Lonesome

If a band formed with the single idea of making musicthat depicts winter in a grand Parisian house in the 1920s, it may well be this band. Hailing from the verdant country-as-coastline of Norway, four-piece Je Suis Animal seem to be on a mission to make pop music that refreshes like a tumble in snow after a sauna, and the realisation that you’re naked in the dark woods afterwards. In this world of increasingly messy musical cross-pollination, their commitment to holing themselves away from the formulaic and ‘popular’ and making a self-recorded aural postcard from a world built of their obsession is a wonderfully realisind thing. Taking their musical cues from mid-’80s Glaswegian bands like The Shop Assistants and sharing Broadcast’s embrace of the warm ambianceof ’60s psychedelic pop group The United States of America, Self-Taught Magic… is an inspiring an odd mixof images; sephia-tainted travel photography, ouija board gatherings and tea parties. Teutonic harmonies, winding pocket watches and a penchant for story-telling; it’s easy to see why UK and Scandinavian pop fans have taken to them so keenly and how they stand apart on the festival lineups. Songs like Amundsen and the single The Mystery of Marie Roget evoke a world that has little to do with daily stresses and reality and a lot to do with intricately-arranged shadowy guitar pop. Even amongst the heartfelt pledges of love and secret noes of the ruggedly rocking it’s an album that, possibly unknowingly, makes for glorious Europhilic escapism. With these harmonies, warm chords, and sense of style, plus the news that they intend to tour later this year, it’s unlikely any unrequited love will be unrequited for long.

Andy Hazel