1000 Gram - Ken Sent Me (2012)

Berliners with Swedish help – people like that. Even more so when the result sounds like summery lightness despite winter and snow. That's what you hear on "Ken Sent Me", the debut album by 1000 Gram. You really don't want to talk about 'alternative rock' anymore, rather about elegant indie wave or north pop. Anyway, you don't really need "Ken Sent Me" - but you want it.

"Music for ZEIT readers", says nordische-musik.de. That sounds promising. As at the beginning of every good story, 1000 Gram started with a match (and no, it wasn't football). The musicians Moritz Lieberkühn and Anna Roxenholt (New Found Land singer) met in Berlin and not only liked each other musically. In Gothenburg they also got Alexander Simm (guitar & keys), Jacob Öhrvall (bass & keys) and Joel Wästberg (drums) and the international collaboration could begin.

However, "Ken Sent Me" was recorded back in the Köllner Chez-Cherie-Studios - but the Scandinavian sound could not be driven out by this, but was rather expanded by American heavy rock elements. The fact that mastermind Lieberkühn also brings along musical influences like Dinosaur Jr. or The Smiths from childhood days does not have to be mentioned as beneficial at this point, the pulse of the heart's blood can be heard too clearly from the album. A game with lightness, a spirit of optimism and a dark direction - now it's getting interesting.

The songs on "Ken Sent Me" could be described as simple, unexcited or pleasing. At the latest on the second listen, however, one hears it deeper and recognizes elegant edges that fit perfectly into the sincere nature of the album - it doesn't complicate it but is smooth, but honest. The opener "Bring Your Lantern" or "Come Back To Me" do without special effects and follow an orderly noise. Always with one foot on the abyss of irrelevance, but you don't have to look down.

If you are looking for music for dancing the night away, great emotional cinema or pathetic destructivism, this is not the place for you. Sometimes, however, an unexcited individuality, subtle melancholy and the slight hint of summer that still remains is the better choice to face the winter.