Dag för Dag - Shooting From The Shadows

With the rise in recent years of technical, mathematic sounding, often instrumental music focus seems to have shifted from great song writing and the fun of music to a self indulgent wankfest of who can write the most technical 20 minute long epic, don't get me wrong sometimes this is great (see: Russian Circles, Dillinger Escape Plan, Rolo Tomassi and Talons), great guitar-pop music has seemed to take second place to this (unless it's some sort of derivative of pop, pop-physc, pop-folk or god forbid pop-drum & bass) and with the British scene offering such a poor crop: Maximo Park, Ladyhawke, Little Boots, White Lies etc. it's been put down to the Americans to give us what we need. Bands like Vivian Girls, Time New Viking, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart and now Dag för Dag are supplying the world with great, great lo-fi pop.


Dag för Dag are a US/Swedish two piece delivering stripped back, noisy and gorgeous guitar pop. Opener of their 'Ring Me Elise' shows the brother sister duo's rougher side, simplistic drumming and gloriously sloppy guitar is the dish of the day here, however it would be easy to assume this sort of sound is the only string to the bands metaphorical bow. 'Pirate Sea' and 'Words' however, blows this theory out of the water. Subtle keyboard sounds and meloncholy vocals put the band's obvious talents in a whole new light, clearly taking cues from Joy Division (especially when it comes to bassist/vocalist Jacob Snavelys Ian Curtis and Peter Hook approach to his musical duties), PJ Harvey and one time tour-mates The Kills.
Despite this great first half of the record, the concurrent two tracks combine the rawness of Ring Me Elise with the subtlety of Words, creating more mature, developed and accomplished delightful lo-fi pop. However this doesn't mean the earlier tracks are neccessarily worse, one of the many joys of this band is the lack of production and the way the band avoid over thinking the songs and the fact they seem to come together by way pure unpolished talent.
The only low point on the record is supplied by way of the final track - a remix of 'You Holler, You Scream', this isn't because the remix is bad, it's actually really good, it just sounds completely out of place: a pristine, well produced remix on a record recorded on a 4 track. It's sort of like putting the Sydney Operahouse next to St. Pauls Cathedral - both are great, but they don't complement each other and it doesn't work. However when viewed as a bonus track, the remix is a great track on one of the brightest debuts of the year so far.

8/10

Shooting From The Shadows is out on Saddle Creek now

Words (Directed by Marcus Harrling):