How would you feel if I told you a young Austrian with eloquent speech was rising in Europe? Don’t worry, you can put away your Rosie the Riveter posters, stop tilling your Victory Gardens, and stop hiding out in the attic; I’m talking about the experimental electronic-neoclassical project Soap&Skin.
Anja Plaschg, the artist behind S&S, is only 21, but has been performing since she was 16. She’s garnered much attention in Europe, being labeled as the next big pop star. She already has a top 10 album in Austria, has starred in a play about German singer/actress Nico (the girl who worked with The Velvet Underground on their debut album), and has her songs licensed for films and commercials. What have you done in the last 5 or 6 years? (My guess? Leveled your Paladin to 85 and lost your girlfriend). Of course, it doesn’t hurt to be attractive, in a Girl With the Dragon Tattoo way.
Like almost everything that comes out of Austria, her music is abstractly beautiful, yet still very depressing and creepy. In most songs, she whispers her lyrics with a piano played in a minor key, and occasionally a sorrowful violin will appear. She adds an echo to the doubled vocals, adding to the open and ambient feel. But then her voice slowly builds and gets louder and the music swells up into a terrific crescendo and you can’t help but be swept away. However, Big Hands Nails Down has this epic, yet kind of ambient feel to it with driving drums and lofty, powerful vocals. And Deathmental has this dirty, industrial, creepy feel with loud electronic samples and Anja’s immensely strange lyrics and condescending tone.
For someone so young, she has a fantastic voice and an amazing sense of musical composition, especially in a genre that most young people don’t listen to. And those that do listen can’t even begin to think of tainting it with that disgusting electronic music. And yet she does, with awesome results.
Vater (Father in German) is, obviously, about her father, whose death in 2009 was an important aspect in the creation of this record. While it is in German, I’ll provide a page with the (poorly) translated lyrics at the bottom. You’ll be able to understand most of it though (anyone want to give a more accurate translation?). It’s a fantastic song, and when I die, I’d love to get an equally amazing tribute from my daughter (but hopefully son).
After reading through the lyrics, you get just how powerful and sad this song is. It starts out pleasant enough, as Anja seems to reminiscing and quietly mourning her father. But I start getting goose bumps around the 2:45 mark as Anja’s voice because louder and mournful, and filled with grief and sadness and anger, and the piano is played with more force and a faster tempo and she adds random notes and then brings in a very epic melody and then…she lulls you into thinking everything is going to be okay. But it’s not. The music builds again, and Anja slowly gets louder and louder, and the strings get brought in and then the distortion comes in and the piercing electronic cuts you and you’re shaken to your core and then… it ends, with a simple high note on the piano, then a long low note. And it’s amazing. The raw emotion of the song is spectacular, and something can only truly be conveyed through classical instrumentation.
The album is out in Europe now, but it doesn’t drop in the US until March 19. I can’t stress this enough – you must buy this album (or steal it, or lead your army of tiger-bear hybrids and try to conquer your local music store or whatever you do to get music).
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