The Null Device

In Case We Die

The Age has a piece on Melbourne coolsie darlings Architecture In Helsinki:

"I think people find that we're really pretentious," says Sutherland cryptically, "or they find that we're really unpretentious."

"To me," he says, "Fingers Crossed was the sound of a band working out what they were doing. There was always a lot of criticism of the naivety on it, but that naivety was totally genuine, because really none of us had any preconceived idea about what we were actually doing when we stood in front of the microphone."

It has always been my contention that AIH would probably sound better in a few albums' time. Fingers Crossed, IMHO, had one really good track on it, and the rest was filler (albeit of an overly twee, fluffy, sugar-coated sort); the fact that the band weren't particularly tight musicians (they did sound like a high-school band, or perhaps the Clifton Hill Very Special Childrens' Choir) didn't help. Having said that, their new album, In Case We Die, sounds interesting:

There's the '70s tropicalia of Need to Shout, the bubblegum pop and Monster Mash-style doo-wop of The Cemetery, the stately piano grandeur of Maybe You Can Owe Me and the synth-pop fizz of first single, Do the Whirlwind. Bird says In Case We Die is a result of the band becoming match-hardened since Fingers Crossed.

I asked at Rough Trade about Architecture In Helsinki, and they hadn't heard of them. It seems that the only Australian bands that get a following here are NME/Xfm/Carling darlings like Jet and more traditional pastoral indie-popsters like The Lucksmiths. I may have to get someone in Australia to send a copy of the album over.

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