Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10
Norway offers such stories of intrigue, such lightness of spirit, that it holds a certain deep affection for music lovers; once the unfortunate calling card for European laughter, the wrongly thought joke of music from a continent that could barely hold its own head above the murky depths, now it is arguably seen as a model of grace and cool across all the genres it chooses to place before the European melting pot. If its Folk scene is ravishing and certainly enhanced by those who made Liverpool their home over the last few years, if its metal scene is full of dynamic pounding and sheer class then its pop has all the hallmarks of being able to mix subtle and wild abandon into a place of dance floor heaven.
I See Rivers are the latest export from Norway to find themselves at the heart of the Mersey, the banks and landing stages that on occasion ferry the cousins and minstrels across to Ireland, now thankfully hold also invite the likes of Eline Brun, Gøril Nilsen and Gøril Nilsen to offer their dreams to the awaiting public and see that they are welcome to do so.
In the band’s single Da Ram, the energy portrayed and harnessed is everything you would want from a Scandinavian pop outfit, yet this is no ordinary pop, not one that is suffocated and stilted, written by a team of pseudo artists content with placing themselves in the public eye, the type where the video that inevitably follows it talks of money, fame and adoration, this is instead a single which is just meant to catch the ears unawares and give a glimpse into another culture’s realism.
The single makes you think of escapism, of placing trust in letting go of the awkward and undemanding and searching for fulfillment in another sphere of conscious, that by taking a different approach to life, a certain sense of satisfaction, if not happiness, can be achieved.
Da Ram is bouncy, free flowing and has a certain pleasure attached to it that can only come from the Scandinavian heart; it is one in which blood rushes to the head and is unavoidable in escaping.
Ian D. Hall