PRE-ORDER ITEM : Expected
January 1st 1970.
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Here’s what reviewers had to say about When Saints Go Machine’s debut EP, 'Fail Forever', released in January: “glistening electro-orchestral compositions” (Drowned In Sound); “a well-positioned crossroads between Arab Strap’s glum synths and strings and the gentle grooves of ‘Bodily Functions’ era Herbert” (Fact); and “an uptempo adventure into the possibilities of combining orchestrated, melancholy pop with a dance music bed” (XLR8R). There’s something in all those observations, yet none fully captures what When Saints Go Machine are about. Maybe that shouldn’t come as a surprise: they’re a hard band to pin down, four young men doing things with electro pop that no one has done before.
The Danish four-piece — Nikolaj Manuel Vonsild (vocals), Jonas Kenton (keyboards), Simon Muschinsky (keyboards) and Silas Moldenhawer (drums) — are a complicated mix of influences. There’s dance music in there, for sure, but also post punk, some experimental electronica in the Aphex Twin mould, and, crucially, a healthy dose of pop. You could describe the end result as a heady mix of Caribou, The Knife/Fever Ray and Arthur Russell. But, really, it doesn’t sound like anything else out there.
The band formed in 2007. They started out making dance music, but quickly left four-four beats behind and started fusing electronics with pop melodies. They caused a local stir when Danish radio picked up on some tracks they’d uploaded onto Myspace. The buzz meant that their first ever gig was at Vega, one of Copenhagen’s leading venues. Then, last year, they opened the Roskilde Festival in front of 45,000 people, an experience Nikolaj describes as “fantastic”.