3 months after their latest music video premiere, Swedish post punk act RÄTTENS KRATER is back with 6 new tracks, uncovering half of their upcoming new record “Urrah!”, slated for an early May release via Conquest of Noise Records on LP and CD formats (pre-orders start soon at this location). As always, we’re stoked to have the opportunity to premiere another compelling array of vintage sounding tunes from this amazing band. “Urrah” meanders through various moods of post punk, art rock, garage, nosie pop, punk rock, and leans on danceble, yet shimmering, almost unearthly atmospherics perfectly. It will surely draw you in with repeated listens! Check it out and be sure to read the official word from the band below.
The band offered us a commentary on “Urrah” and explained the concepts behind the record:
”URRAH!
All flesh is grass.
We’ve recorded URRAH! in the same studio as our earlier recordings, Studio Berlin Wall of Sound that is. This time our long time friend Jarkko H. Olsson helped us. The result is probably nearer our aesthetic ideals than earlier works. We think of it as Terror Pop. We guess it is. Urrah! is released on australian label Conquest of Noise and will be released worldwide in early May. We have thought of Urrah! as the point zero. Tales from the hole. Maybe the year zero. Some people says that Sweden lost her virginity when Prime minister Olof Palme was assassinated. Thats simply not true. If not before, at least it was lost when the danish brought Syphilis in the early 16:th century. ”Silverkillern” is about that regicide anyhow. It’s a reoccurring theme. Treason and regicide.
”Rå Kraft” is about the infamous Bombmannen, “the bomb man”, and like ”Silverkillern” about the assassination of prime minister Olof Palme. Same era, 20th century fin de siecle, but otherwise the two shouldn’t be mixed up. Once exposed to the mighty power of state and government. Thereafter it’s no turning back, there shall be revenge and nothing else. ”Rå Kraft” translates Raw Power.
Unintentional it’s about Sweden in the context of a biblical wasteland. From your trench to the horizon there’s a line. That’s life. ”Pantad, kalkad, såld” explores the possibilities of escape. Gustavus I of Sweden haunts his people through the desert and alongside of him is Moses, keeping the whips cracking. From afar it seems strange but the closer you get to the scaffold… It’s kind of familiar.
The opening track “Lyftet” and “Pantad, Kalkad, Såld” borrows their theme from legendary author Kenneth Ahl. Lyftet (The Score) he described as “that one stroke that will turn you from an ordinary bastard to a Great Man. It’s that dream that keeps our society going, i. e. the working class going. The dream of success at the racing tracks, lottery winnings and rififis. Those who knows better earn their money parasitizing these dreams.”
An Eden complete, our lions considered lambs. Omnipotence and martyrdom sleeps side by side. But this society of virginity, vegetarianism, milk and honey was preceded by eons of violence and will be succeeded with eons of violence. Jarkko, the atavistic speed freak of ”Jarkkografin” is the bridge between them. Life will prevail, even when dragged through the deserts of Dalarna.
In ”Det skimrar bland soporna” Jarkko the atavistic speed freak returns. The ghost of a dream. I guess you were right, Jarkko. It makes more sense masturbating for the dead. Than this that is.”
