This is hypnotic about music that is not in a hurry and Danish dark-pop project TRALALAS knows that. The second single by Morten Alsinger, the songwriter of the upcoming debut album, is a three and a half minute meditation on how flexible emotions are, how loss and gain, friendship and love exist in a state of continuous, dynamic opposition.
After the second haunting song, Winter on the Vine, Burns goes even deeper inside, making it a sound space that is both close and open. The vocals growled provide an aggressive, dark, effect that instantly creates the mood, and the melody operates on the level of a near-trance, making you more and more engrossed with every play. It is not music that should be passively listened to but rather one that requires you to pay attention to and it pays off great generously.
The instrumentation is quite sparing: guitars reverberating, form a texture that is not overwhelming, and the drumwork gives the instrumentation some supportive force without being too aggressive. It is in this repression that Burns gains its strength and plays with suspense and anticipation instead of dramatic changes or abrupt intensity. The effect is melancholy, meditative, and it borders on the fragile melancholy and silent strength.
The maturity in the sound of TRALALAS is informed by the fact that Alsinger was actually returning to music after several years of raising a family and a decade of electro-punk underground music with electronic duo VERTICAL, and then this dark-pop incarnation. Such influences as Nick Cave, Joy Division, and Bauhaus can be seen, though refracted through a decades-long experience of life and development of the creative process.
With vocals by collaborator Heidi Lindahl and a production team of Thomas Li, Burns presents a close-knit team of creatives at the peak of their abilities. That is the title of a phrase in Hubert Selby Jr. Last Exit to Brooklyn, TRALALAS has the roughness and the heartbeat alike. It is dark pop which deserves its shadows.
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