A Life In A Church: On music.
By Kjetil Nernes
What did you listen to in 2024?
My album of 2024 is Kim Gordon’s ‘The Collective’. About a year ago I was discussing sounds with Karin’s producer Anthony Belguise. I had this idea about a certain bass-heavy rock sound that I wanted to implement in Årabrot. Technically a modern midrange bass sound mixed with dirty guitars and a distinct vocal production. Also dry drums contrary to our usual Albini-style 70’s rock drum sound. On paper it’s an industrial approach, but what I envisioned had nothing to do with industrial music or metal for that matter. In some ways it had nothing to do with regular rock either. Maybe something inspired by listening to Death Grips’ ‘The Money Store’? Or clipping.’s ‘Visions Of Bodies Being Burned’ or ‘There Existed An Addiction To Blood’? I just couldn’t put the sound into words. I’m not a musician in the common sense so any proper musical terms would be null and void. I tried a poetic approach imagining Throbbing Gristle’s xeroxed factories with chimney smoke risen heavenward as a way of describing heavy duty bass sounds. But it all miserably collapsed into a scattered, stuttering monologue which in no way put to ease the confused expression on Anthony’s face.
Kim Gordon’s new album ‘The Collective’ is not exactly the sound I tried to find the words for but it is damn close. I was nearly floored by the first listen last summer. It sounds industrial but is nothing like industrial. It has hip hop grooves but is nothing like hip hop. It’s essentially a rock album that doesn’t sound like rock. At least not in any conventional way of describing rock. I have nothing but respect for this music and I love listening to it.
That said, whether I like to or not I probably listened to Charli XCX and Dua Lipa the most last year. It’s a strange side effect of having children at a certain age. ‘Von Dutch’ is a good pop song though. The production is great and the music video cool. ‘Houdini’ is a banger too and Olivia Rodrigo seems to produce rock’n’roll with hairier and greasier balls than anything Foo Fighters has come up with in the 2000’s. I feel like a social anthropologist making notes on the weird phenomena of pop music when I inadvertently hear top ten crowd-pullers. It should be all about the sounds but it is not. Pop music thrives on the algorithms and algorithms rule the domain in the 2020’s. Last summer I sat down on the veranda in the sun and listened through Jessica Pratt’s new album while drinking coffee. The sun was warm and nice and the music okay. I really didn’t give it much thought. I only have so much room for ethereal and dreamlike folk and I honestly like Beth Gibbons’ new album better. Yet in some way I am now told by algorithms that Jessica Pratt is one of my top artists of the year 2024. My summer holiday song (I always have an annual summer song) - Jimmy Ruffin’s ‘What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted’ - went on repeat for three full months but did not make the list. When the first snow came back in November I spent a whole day listening to Patsy Cline’s wonderful ‘Sentimentally Yours’. It wasn’t mentioned by the end of the year algorithms either. Fortunately Norwegian pianist Håkon Austbø’s beautiful Satie album made my algorithmic album of the year. It’s a sweeter side effect of having kids. My youngest one sleeps well to Satie’s tranquil minimalist piano.
As mentioned, I am not really a musician by any classical meaning of the word. I listen to music, I collect and consume music. I have done so for 30 years. Ever since discovering Nirvana in my late teens: a revelation that changed my life forever. Usually we keep the radio on most of the day here in the church where we live. We have a record player in the kitchen and we play records while cooking and having meals. All the Swans cardboard album covers have bacon fat fingerprints all over. I spend a lot of time listening to old and new music and I make playlists. I think and breathe music. The silence in between can be treacherous to me. The music fills and blankets the space where my inner demons reign. The demons with their thin bony claws that keep pulling me down, pulling me into despair. It’s astonishing how the effect of music clears the air for me. It’s like a sonic life jacket. An aural life preserver. It makes me wonder what I did all the years before I discovered Nirvana and the guitar at fifteen.
Blues fallin' down like hail
fallin' down like hail
And the day keeps on worryin' me
There's a hellhound on my trail
A less fortunate side of the deep dive into the world of music is that I have grown slightly jaded concerning certain types of music. I have discovered that second and third generation indie really gets me. Sports Sock or Gym Teacher or whatever these new bands are called. I find it fascinating the second and third generation indie bands indulge in 90’s style irony and sarcasm in the style of say Jesus Lizard or the Butthole Surfers, but completely omit the danger. Jesus Lizard and Butthole Surfers were fucking dangerous. You’d never know whether they were cracking a joke or just about to stab you with a jack knife.
Where is the good old kick in the face?
Not too far off fortunately. Just about an hour eastbound towards Russia to be precise. Oranssi Pazuzu take no prisoners. If it wasn’t for the inventiveness of ‘The Collective’, ‘Muuntautuja’ would be my album of 2024. Oranssi Pazuzu have an incredible way of musically expressing certain aspects of my inner emotional life. Not the day to day emotional rollercoaster, but the deep within me inherited from the winds and rain and ragged mountainous landscape of Haugesund, Norway, where I was born and grew up. It’s my personal emotional landscape, a place I can’t shake or change even after years living other places. The Norwegian west coast is in my blood, Oranssi Pazuzu is the soundtrack.
So what did you listen to in 2024? I suggest checking out Kim Gordon if you didn’t already. Oranssi Pazuzu too. The music is great.
Kjetil Nernes
Kjetil is the vocalist, guitarist and songwriter of the Norwegian band Årabrot.
Listen to them on Bandcamp or Spotify.
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