Asgeir: Afterglow (Inertia/Rhythmethod)

 |   |  <1 min read

Nothing
Asgeir: Afterglow (Inertia/Rhythmethod)

Given the genre – somewhere between orchestrated electronica, ambient and embellished folk – this second album from Iceland's Asgeir should grip at Elsewhere. But it just doesn't.

Because you sense behind some of the glitch-electro and airy vocals this is very familiar and much traversed territory.

Where its predecessor Into the Silence had evocative and dream-folk elements and a spaciousness along with its trip-hop, this one sounds almost suffocated by the genre it occupies, where white-soul falsetto and James Blake sit uncomfortably on the disco substrata of a piece like Stardust and in the arch poetics in the stuttering grandeur of Here Comes The Wave In.

At its best – the opening title track, the emotional quiver of Underneath It which takes off into twisty space-rock at the midpoint – this certainly holds considerable appeal.

But around such moments are too much which seems beamed in from someone else's sonic palette, or have become a servant to the available technology.

An album you might want to like more than you do?

Share It

Your Comments

post a comment

More from this section   Music at Elsewhere articles index

Peter Wolf Crier: Inter-Be (Jagjaguwar)

Peter Wolf Crier: Inter-Be (Jagjaguwar)

Peter Wolf Crier are an electro-acoustic duo out of Minneapolis (not to be confused with this guy) and this is their modest debut album. I say modest because while they utilise all the lo-tech... > Read more

Ennio Morricone: Morricone Segreto (Decca/digital outlets)

Ennio Morricone: Morricone Segreto (Decca/digital outlets)

The late Ennio Morricone's work was so diverse – orchestral scores to oddball sonic vignettes – that listeners almost invariably default to their favourite style: the quirky spaghetti... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

THE BEATLES. BEATLES FOR SALE, CONSIDERED (1964): Cashing in and the start of cashing out

THE BEATLES. BEATLES FOR SALE, CONSIDERED (1964): Cashing in and the start of cashing out

With a cynical title and a great cover photo, the Beatles' fourth album in 20 months was a mixed bag of excellent and different new songs alongside filler pulled from the back-pocket of their... > Read more

THE ELSEWHERE SONGWRITER QUESTIONNAIRE: APRA Silver Scroll nominee 2013 Anna Coddington

THE ELSEWHERE SONGWRITER QUESTIONNAIRE: APRA Silver Scroll nominee 2013 Anna Coddington

The annual APRA Silver Scroll award acknowledges excellence in songwriting, so at Elsewhere we modified our Famous Elsewhere Questionnaire and tailored it to be specifically about the craft of... > Read more