Albums to watch

Piramida

Efterklang

Piramida

Fourth album from the Danish specialists in adventurous orchestral pop and post-rock / folk, partly recorded in an abandoned Russian mining settlement

ADM rating[?]

7.4

Label
4AD
UK Release date
24/09/2012
US Release date
25/09/2012
  1. 9.0 |   The Line Of Best Fit

    These aren’t tales of urban dysfunction or material wants, of what happened in the club that time or who’s wearing a Rolex watch: Piramida shows us another world, wild and windswept and almost elemental
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  2. 9.0 |   Drowned In Sound

    Piramida is undoubtedly the band’s most immediate work to date and it might be strange to be writing it, but nearly each and every track would work standing on its own
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  3. 8.5 |   BBC

    Past albums enchanted with music box electronica and neo-classical chamber pop, but Piramida is weightier, grappling with loss and with feeling lost, with the crises that come with age, the self-doubt that follows heartbreak
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  4. 8.0 |   The Irish Times

    Another triumph from a band that gets better with every release
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  5. 8.0 |   The Skinny

    Though possibly their least straightforwardly enjoyable album, Perimida is a distinct and expertly-accomplished advancement of the Efterklang sound
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  6. 8.0 |   Mojo

    Deep beneath the emotional permafrost, Piramida isn't as cold as it seems. Print edition only

  7. 8.0 |   Q

    Here's a band on top of the world, and on top of their game. Print edition only

  8. 8.0 |   Evening Standard

    Some might complain of a certain bloodlessness, but ghosts don’t have blood. A scary beauty
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  9. 8.0 |   The Fly

    A typically Scandinavian work of ‘glacial’ beauty? No – this is a fully realised work of intellect and warmth
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  10. 8.0 |   DIY

    The jazz inflections, soaring female backing vocals and thoroughly adult arrangements could easily err on the side of middlebrow coffee table ephemera but the band’s songwriting guile and craft retains an emphasis on style over substance
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  11. 8.0 |   All Music

    The band didn't rely strictly on the field recordings they gathered, but rather assimilated them into the ten songs here with tasteful restraint
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  12. 8.0 |   State

    Each song has a beautifully sincere precision of a maturing act in their prime. Accessible, likeable and with just a touch of genius
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  13. 8.0 |   musicOMH

    A record of rare beauty, like catching a glimpse of an uncommonly beautiful sunset or a finely crafted ice sculpture. A moment to be savoured, in other words
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  14. 8.0 |   Under The Radar

    A unique postcard sent direct from a real-life ghost town
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  15. 7.5 |   hhv.de mag

    Efterklang are doing many things very right
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  16. 7.5 |   Tone Deaf

    In their effort to enter the pop realm Efterklang also meander into Bon Iver-style territory, engaging in some of his more sentimental heartstring tugging instincts
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  17. 7.0 |   The Quietus

    This is the sound of a band once again setting a course for personal creative development and revelling in its every ambitious step
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  18. 7.0 |   PopMatters

    A great effort from a band that is still learning what it can do
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  19. 7.0 |   Prefix

    Another album of tidy, beautiful, orchestra-anchored chamber pop
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  20. 7.0 |   Clash

    As polished as a beach stone, it’s a subtle, startling work
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  21. 7.0 |   Entertainment.ie

    Piramida is an album that grows on you with each and every listen. It requires a degree of immersion from the listener, a willingness to seek out the nuanced beauty to be found in every richly detailed moment
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  22. 6.2 |   Bowlegs

    Take it or leave it for now, Piramida will age well. Without making grand statements, it will lie out there, waiting for attuned travellers to discover it
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  23. 6.0 |   The Guardian

    Their eclectic style demands space to breathe, and shorter songs, like The Living Layer and Dreams Today, which starts as a sprint but ends up puffed out, are left wanting
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  24. 5.7 |   Pitchfork

    Music that on its surface feels ambitious and sophisticated but which manages never to take any real chances
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  25. 5.0 |   NME

    Destined for the ‘obscure, kinda interesting’ slot come end-of-year list time
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  26. 5.0 |   Consequence Of Sound

    Left to their own devices, the instrumental beds of Piramida would make for entrancing listens; relegated to second fiddle alongside middling pop melodies, they offer a pleasant distraction
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Efterklang: Piramida

  • Download full album for just £8.49
  • 1. Hollow Mountain £0.89
  • 2. Apples £0.89
  • 3. Sedna £0.89
  • 4. Told To Be Fine £0.89
  • 5. The Living Layer £0.89
  • 6. The Ghost £0.89
  • 7. Black Summer £0.89
  • 8. Dreams Today £0.89
  • 9. Between The Walls £0.89
  • 10. Monument £0.89
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