Wednesday 13 July 2016

Single: Klangstof - We Are Your Receiver

Klangstof We Are Your Receiver



Klangstof - We Are Your Receiver


- Review by Noël Duplaa

Info: Following from his previous releases, 'Amansworld' and 'Hostage', which were picked up by the likes of NME, Stereogum and Zane Lowe, Norwegian artist Klangstof has dropped his new single 'We Are Your Receiver'. Put out by LA record label/creative collective Mind of a Genius, it takes a more stately approach than its predecessors, without losing an inch of quality.

Klangstof, or Koen van de Wardt as he’s known to his friends, learned how to play music by obsessively listening to Radiohead’s seminal OK Computer for a year and figuring out how to play the songs by deconstructing them. OK Computer was clearly Radiohead’s great leap forward - an album that managed to skew traditional song structures without sacrificing the inherent adrenaline rush and emotional payoff. And while Klangstof is still establishing his own musical identity, he has clearly absorbed their gift for melody and their facility with creating aural landscapes.

Opening with a nervous electronic swell which rises and holds as a ghostly siren, only to be grounded by strummed guitars and coded lyrics, the track is granted its determined forward pulse with the arrival of the warm bass and drums. The pristine production and tight harmonies mean that by the time the chorus arrives the second time, the song is primed to shoot into all the available space. 

Clearly steeped in classic songwriting, (which is in no way a negative), when the inevitable solo kicks in, it is both pleasantly odd in its live electricity textures and its compact brevity, and demonstrates an artist not just growing in confidence at his ability to build sonic structures, but champing at the bit to test his limits and find new boundaries. Already cresting a wave of forward momentum, it will be interesting to see where he goes once he’s finished building his foundations.

Klangstof European Tour Dates

Look / Like / Listen & Follow:

Website: http://klangstof.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/klngstf/

SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/klangstof

Twitter: https://twitter.com/klangstof