NICE SYSTEM

are a trio of Norwegians who record more frequently under the name Remington Super 60.

In the spring of 2000, Christoffer Schou, Magnus Abelsen and Benedicte Sveinsson of the Norwegian group Remington Super 60 tried their hand at writing a few tunes for the 18fps soundtrack series. The recordings were originally seen as a one-off experiment in using real drums and more acoustic instruments. They slipped us the demos under the alias “Nice System”. RK liked the results enough, however, to persuade the trio to continue the experiment, the result being the evidence now before you.

Aside from the more prominent use of “real instruments” here, including some nice cello bits (don’t worry, Remington’s love of fragile and warbling synths is still very much in evidence), the trio also chose to focus on semi-instrumentals in their work for Radio Khartoum. The finished record is a complete suite, in which the “proper” songs and instrumentals are bound together in “music between the songs” fashion. Shorter bits, that is. Unfinished theme music for imaginary game shows, drunken cowboys, daydreams intruded upon by rumblings from the construction site next door.... The record has a lovely flow, gently wending its way between quieter and louder passages.

Radio Khartoum puts out a hell of a lot of late night players. But this mini-album is not one of them. Afternoon spinner, definitely. For lazy ones, at that. Nice System may sing to the contrary, but the smart money says the alarm clock on track 4 didn’t go off before 3 p.m. At the very earliest.

In an ever more jumbled world, sometimes it's what you can't see that's most important. The fourth volume of Radio Khartoum's 18fps series is a meditation on location and visibility: the hidden and the lost, things no longer here, and things that are elsewhere. A soundtrack is projected on the inner ear, momentarily cutting through the urban barrage of light, image and noise, to find a fleeting equilibrium between leaving one place and going to another, or to experience a departed lover's presence in the fragrance of a shirt.

The music begins with a small and sweet melody for things lost by The Pierres (featuring Christoffer Schou of Nice System/Remington Super 60), then makes a dramatic cut to Leeds based singer Cavil and a fragile song that hovers between music box and the rhythm of the rails. Dakota Suite contribute a chamber instrumental whose rich, woody cellos remind us of Simon Fisher Turner's Caravaggio soundtrack or Rachels' Music for Egon Schiele. Julien Ribot spins the album's second music box fantasy, but this one blows up, expanding to epic proportions, as Julien, his strings and guitars are swept away by a current of distant trumpets. Watoo Watoo collaborator Didier Duclos, aka Christine (third time out for 18fps) provides an interlude in the form of a wash of ringing guitars with a suggestion of Maurice Deebank, before French band Spring wind things down with a haunting, stripped down version of one of their classics. All tracks exclusive.
Further details? See the press release.