Rangleklods - Straitjacket: 5 Years Tied Up
Today marks the five year anniversary of Rangleklods’ industrial, electronic, synth-pop work of art, Straitjacket.
Translating to ‘Rattle Block’, Rangleklods often seems to rattle our block-head brains with their combination of dreamy vocals, industrial deconstruction of melody and production, and attention to the most eclectic detail.
In contrast to the restraint that the album title implies, Straitjacket was a monumental album for Rangleklods through it’s open collaboration. Originally the solo project of Esben Nørskov Andersen, Straitjacket marked the evolution of Rangleklods into a duo, with the addition of Pernille Smith-Seversten (Blondage).
Their deeply layered and - at times - wild sound on this album also run in stark contrast to the album title. Dreamy synth-pop verses are interspersed with industrial breaks, occasionally dipping a toe into the domains of hardcore electronic, dance-pop, or glitch, before gracefully returning to a dreamy realm; all the while, experimenting with the boundary between familiar and far-flung.
While Smith-Seversten has moved on to her solo project Blondage, and Rangleklods is once again Esben’s solo project, we are fondly listening back today to this recorded testament of the duo’s two year collaboration on Straitjacket... and have come to realize that perhaps the title is not so much alluding to the album’s sound, as it is to what the duo was striving to escape in their collaboration: restraint.
Take a listen to Straitjacket here on it’s special day and rattle that block-head of yours. (We say that with infinite love and jest, of course ;) )
