Daily Download: "Women to Control," AK-Momo, from "Return to N.Y."

One of the best new records I've heard so far this year -- certainly the best from an artist I'd never heard of before -- is "Return to N.Y.," by Swedish duo AK-Momo. The tracks are made almost entirely using optigans, mellotrons and orchestrons, instant nostalgia machines that make faded, beautifully degraded sounds, the sounds of a half-remembered Victorian dream world. These instruments are so potently evocative that even when used in small doses it can seem like a cheap trick, like a drizzle of truffle oil that imparts an instant air of luxury. But the complete saturation works wonders here: To be enveloped so completely in their rare, precious sound is irresistible -- like a truffle tasting menu. Anna Karin von Malmborg has a delivery that falls somewhere between Portishead singer Beth Gibbons' witchy torch-song shtick and the Cocorosie girls' catlike affect. While this record's main strength is its atmosphere, "Women to Control" has a pretty stunning melody too, with beautiful transitions from verse to chorus and back again." Also available for free download: "Boys & Girls" (nice) and "Return to N.Y." (nicer).
Free Download: "Women to Control"