My familiarity with We The North was nowhere near what it should have been over the last five years or so. Outside of a spin or two from the 2020 album and a stellar remix of Tobias Bernstrup’s “Private Eye” track, that was my introduction to We The North. Sure, I could use the excuse that during the height of the global pandemic there was so much music released, it was easy to lose a gem in the vast pools of talent out there, but I failed my self allowing this artist to fall outside of my sight line. Since receiving Love + Death LP I soon realized how big the oversight truly was.
We The North channels the darker regions of the Scandinavian seasons as a focal point of influence to breathe life into their Nordic Noir persona. As the needle hits the vinyl, the listener instantly begins a perpetual journey into the gloaming, a place where a menagerie of sound, environment and inspiration collide to create something wonderful that walks the razor’s edge of light and darkness, while finding a way to tie the axial parallelism to the epicenter of the Nordic Noir soundscape.
Love + Death is next chapter in We The North’s expanding catalogue. The moody rhythms provide a portal for a deep dive into the melancholy themes and sounds on Love + Death. The creativity within each track’s structure is sure to pique some curiosity with a very light and airy atmosphere that perpetuates the melodies that drive We The North’s approach to navigating the sonic highways and all of their infinite crossroads. On the surface the initial feel may seem straight-forward, leaning towards the synthpop realms with heavy dose of lament, but there are secondary layers at work to showcase the strategy to explore deeper into the mix. Backed by the mastering abilities of Stefan Bornhorst (The Silicon Scientist), We The North find ways to take some electro industrial beats and the blend them into a beautiful yet powerful synthpop tracks. Another way We The North defines themselves resides in the way the vocals compliment the waves of melancholy as they weave through the horizon where dark and light collide to deliver that Nordic Noir statement.
The vinyl is limited to 210 copies on 140g clear vinyl and 121 copies on 140g black vinyl. Both are hand-numbered with a post card with lyrics printed on the inner sleeve. The CD version comes with bonus tracks in the form of high quality remixes. Again the mastering was done Stefan Bornhorst. The sleeve design was done by regular Nadanna contributor Steven Lippert and the photography is credited to Magnus Eklund.
Life + Death lp is a stunning album loaded with melodies and darker tones, yet ultimately finds ways to peer into the eyes of hopefulness in every way that makes this memorable as well as influential. Fans of The Silicon Scientist, Quieter Than Spiders and pretty much every on else Nadanna Records and Anna Logue Records with certainly gravitate towards this. My recommendation is playing very loud on a nice home system to really capture the message and of the intricacies that drive We The North to the next phase. Don’t sleep on this.
