Copenhagen post-rockers, The Shaking Sensations, initially formed to escape the confines of their small, desolate and windy town in western Denmark. Little did they know, that in doing so, the five-piece would build a reputation that would see them join a group of up-and-coming post-rock bands following in the footsteps of heavyweights like Mogwai and Godspeed You! Black Emperor.
Having released their 2010 debut EP, This Is Your Hellfire Region, the band experienced a sharp rise to prominence in Denmark due to the simple melodies that would lead the listener on a tranquil, dream like journey before culminating in a beautiful, often deafening chaos.
Debut album, East of Youth, encapsulates everything that is good about an over populated genre with tracks like “Our Hearts Were Young and Gay” featuring heart-wrenching guitar work throughout which, while sparse, conjures up a variety of reflective emotions. This is in stark contrast to album closer, “Homage to Boyhood”, which really defines the bands heavier side. The track also showcases why the band have opted for two drummers perfectly, both rhythmically and in terms of the sheer wall of sound they manage to create.
After a support tour for American heavy weight instrumentalists Caspian in the early months of 2012, The Shaking Sensations decided to step back and focus on new songs and sounds. The band’s 2nd full length album, Start Stop Worrying is a evidence of a band that has matured and found itself. Summing up the qualities and the experience from extensive touring and the previous releases, the band is now ready to step out of the shadows and become a significant factor on the instrumental rock scene. Album opener ‘Rocket Summer’ determines that the band is still true to the virtues of the instrumental rock with its heavy hard pounding opening, long build-ups and a epic heavily distorted ending. Tracks such as ‘We Ourselves Alone’, and ‘Anchors’, shows a band willing to go in new directions, leaving the long crescendos out, in favor of more uncompromising song structures and a more forward approach. Album closer, ‘Heavy Entity’ is one long testament to how instrumental rock sounds in 2013, without letting go of the classic well-known means of the genre.
In January 2013, The Shaking Sensations signed with well-reputed Berlin-based label Pelagic Records, home of The Ocean, God is An Astronaut, Earthship and Ef. This indicates a new era in the band’s history, and definitely places The Shaking Sensations amongst the established acts on the scene.
"...The Shaking Sensations’ embrace of post-rock’s minimalist stylings precludes genuine innovation, but their fuzzy meditations brilliantly conjure frustrated hopes and longings. For those skeptical about the notion of this genre, these young Danes may prove its territory with possibilities yet to be mined...", Prog Magazine (UK) wrote,
and Big Cheese (UK) added: "They are part of what I hope is a new generation who take bands like Mono as an influence as much as they do Godspeed and are ready and willing to carry the torch for expressive instrumental based rock music to a new legion of fans"; and gave the album a 4 out 5.
The Shaking Sensations have been touring extensively in the last couple of years, supporting acts such as Caspian, And So I Watch You From Afar and Russian Circles. The band has built a reputation of being a very intense live experience, which can only be anticipated from the below rehearsal room video clip of "The Obsidian Sea", featuring 9 musicians and 2 drummers...
For fans of EF, Explosions in the Sky, Caspian, Efterklang, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Mono
www.facebook.com/theshakingsensations
Danish rock band Darling Don’t Dance present a unique unity of style and substance. While unabashedly rooted in the commercial explosion of punk rock in the early ‘90s, the band’s sound also evokes the visceral Portland indie of the latter ‘90s and the artier sounds of New York and Boston in the late ‘80s.
Since forming in 2007, Darling Don’t Dance have played shows across Denmark, journeyed to Iceland for the celebrated Airwaves Festival, and even ventured to the U.S. three times to play a series of shows in New York. With features in the Danish press and on national television and radio, the band have steadily garnered attention, culminating in the release of their debut EP, “Bare Frames,” on Copenhagen-based label Pad & Pen Records in 2009. The debut album "City Ghosts" was released March 26th 2012.
Darling Don’t Dance lack any pretension to the more fashionable reference points so casually tossed around as inspiration, and make no attempt to appease the tastemakers. Darling Don’t Dance take the music of their adolescence and redress it for today. They sound like who they are; a band that was weaned on Smashing Pumpkins, snuck their first drink with the Pixies, and polished off the bottle with Sleater-Kinney.
“Three-quarters of Darling Don't Dance could be J. Mascis' forgotten daughters. In the spirit of the Dinosaur Jr. front man they are playing cupid with golden melodies and the perfectly right grunge sound coming from big muff guitar effects." (Soundvenue, 2012)
"Simple rock rhythms, vocal melodies with a twist of pop and noise have never been mixed so uncompromising and harmonic." (Underlyd, 2012)
http://www.darlingdontdance.dk/
http://www.facebook.com/darlingdontdancedk/