SOUNDTRACK: THE ALLER VÆRSTE!-Materialtretthet (1980).
The Aller Værste! were a Norwegian new waves/punk band with elements of ska thrown in. I only know of them because of this story, but I decided to check out some of their stuff since it is so relevant to the story.
This was their debut album, which has been ranked as the number 6 best Norwegian album of all time (by Morgenbladet, a Norwegian weekly newspaper). The album opens with lounge piano and trombone before breaking into a ska-inflected “Du sklei meg så nær innpå livet.” Lead singer Chris Erichsen sings in some unusually deep voices (some of which seem comical) in “Dødelige drifter.” “Døgnflue” is a two-minute punk blast with a loud Farfisa organ running throughout.
“Bare du som passer på” has a distinctly Clash feel in the vocals. “For dem betyr det lite” is powered by that organ sound, while “Bare en vanlig fyr” is very guitar heavy (and may have a different singer). This is probably my favorite song on the album, there’s some great sections in it.
This sound of punk sensibility with a prominent organ (an vocals in Norwegian) really make The Aller Værste! stand out in 80s rock. “Må ha deg” has some interesting backing vocals and sounds like a Clash inspired ska song (with more crazy vocals). It has a slow instrumental section with a twangy guitar solo.
“Igjen” is 90 seconds of punk (but not very harsh punk). The next few songs are all about 3 and a half minutes long. “Bare ikke nok” has call and response vocals and an unexpected beat. “Hong Kong” slows the sound down, with a prominent bass riff. “De invalide” is an upbeat song with horns. “Hekt” has some dissonant guitar over almost funky bass and a serious breakdown at the end. “Discodrøv” has very fast drums as it opens, but it turns into a rollicking song with disco bass and big horns.
“Oppvekst” follows those horns with some fast (ska-like) guitars. “Materialtretthet” opens with some great, wild bass and continues wit a very fast-paced song. This is another favorite (it’s interesting that the title track is also one of the shorter songs on the record). “Menneskelig svikt” sounds quite raw, with echoey distant guitars and vocals. “Blank” is the final song on the album (reissues have added more tracks). It has a distant echoey harmonica acting as a melancholy sound behind the vocals.
I hope that Karl Ove’s book somehow gets this disc in print, I’d like to listen to it on more than YouTube.
There’s a live version of the song mentioned at the end of the story here:
[READ: June 11, 2014] “Come Together”
I know that this is an excerpt form the third part of My Struggle which I plan to read in say six or eight months. But I decided to read it anyway in part because I was intrigued by the cover picture, which is of a record sleeve with a man on a bicycle and the wheel is the inner label of an album. That, coupled with the title “Come Together” made it pretty apparent that this would be about music. And so it was.
As I said, this is excerpted from Karl Ove’s third book in the My Struggle series, which is called Boyhood. I’m intrigued that this book is set in his teenage years since the first two were set much later–it actually felt like Book 2 caught us up to the present). At any rate, this is one small section (chock full of details) about being young and being in love with music and with girls. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 