Hjortene Announce Repress of Self-Titled Debut
Danish rockers Hjortene released their self-titled debut full-length back in the Spring, and having sold out of the first pressing have done the only reasonable thing and whipped up another batch. This time around, Hjortene‘s Hjortene is available in an edition of 300 thick-stock brown vinyl platters with alternate artwork from what they used on the first pressing. The record, if you’ll recall, was a frenzy of stoner riffing, so if you missed it before all the other copies went, the band and their imprint, Walden Rekords, have you covered in style.
Info, background and the album stream follow, courtesy of the band, who also promise new material on the horizon:
HJORTENE news: New heavy brown vinyl + concert dates + new sounds (soon)
The first edition (300) of Hjortene S/T on black heavy vinyl sold out a few months ago. Therefore we have made a new batch (300), and this time on heavy brown vinyl.
The artwork is slightly altered – as it is a brown print on heavy rough cardboard. This edition includes a free download coupon for the album. All other owners of the first vinyl edition can write us for a free download code as well.
The self titled record was recorded live at Black Tornado studios in Copenhagen, Denmark with Anders Onsberg Hansen (Baby Woodrose, Spids Nøgenhat, Highway Child) and the album is indeed very warm sounding since all songs are recorded direct to analogue tape (btw on the same tape recorder Nirvana used to record ‘In Utero’).
On the album, the band worked with three distinct handpicked guest musicians:
— Valient Himself from American Valient Thorr lend his vocal duties on the opener 180.000 km/t. The guest vocals became possible after a long correspondence between the lead singer and the band, and the recording took place in a conference room at the venue before Valient Thorr’s last gig in Copenhagen.
— Lorenzo Woodrose from Baby Woodrose and Spids Nøgenhat is an old friend of the band, who guests on Canada with a 1½ minute double fuzz- space echo-wah solo, where he plays against himself in guitar sequences intertwining endlessly.
— President Fetch/Molle from legendary danish punkband President Fetch participates on the shortest track of the record, James Brown. The President wrote the lyrics about the King of Soul, who wishes to fly with UFO’s in Thuringia and walk on coals with the Mau Mau.
The sound of Hjortene is like dry wood beeing chopped with a fuzz pedal set to 11, and an old tube amp puking blood. The album is packed with solid bass heavy riffs that will cater for fans of Fu Manchu, Brant Bjork, Nebula, The Sword and Mudhoney, but with more unconventional song structures and experimental (animal-)sounds.
Previously all Hjortene’s songs have been in their native language, but on this album Danish and English is mixed. The lyrics are a bipolar mixture focusing from birth to death and on the mind’s darkets corners. For example the 9 minute long Canada: What happens, when you’re sitting in the most peaceful enviroment in the forests of Canada, and suddenly you feel yourself so clearly that all the bad things you have accumulated over time just comes tumbling.
In 2004 Hjortene won an P3 Guld-award and later they released the 10” mini album ’Brøl Stød Løb’ (2007). In 2008 Hjortene released the split-EP ‘World Domination’ (2008) with Swedish band Omar.
This winter the following concerts are booked:
November 8 with President Fetch @ High Voltage, Copenhagen (Denmark)
December 12 @ Gimle Soundtjek, Roskilde (Denmark)
January 30 @ Festival, Aalborg (Denmark)
January 31 @ Radar, Aarhus (Denmark)
— NEW RIFFS —
Hjortene also started working on new material, and some sound snippets will be up on the band’s Soundclouad in the nearest future: https://soundcloud.com/hjortene
http://hjortene.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/hjortene/
