Tripper is the first full-length album by Danish group
Efterklang. It was preceded only by the EP
Springer, which was released in 2003; Tripper came out one year after. Being a Danish band playing a mixture of
glitch and
post-rock, Efterklang's obscurity is understandable. It is however also completely undeserved; this is an amazing album.
Tripper creates a sweetly haunting soundscape with the simple understated clicks and pops that make glitch pop what it is. The album is so sad and withdrawn, it sucks the very colour from the room. Each song unfolds slowly and deliberately, revealing ashen images of chalk and dust, and draws the listener into vast underground caverns full of still, inky lakes.
Ideally, Tripper is a late-night listen through headphones. The hundreds of grainy little clacks that bubble to the surface fit well with a dark, empty house, or better yet, a house with the softspoken presence of sleeping people. Crawling into the lonely crevasse between the late night and early morning, Tripper is at its best. It is the soundtrack to the big, busy city that finally gets to rest, leaving infrastructure and architecture cold to the touch.
The album is not entirely electronic by any means; there are a lot of solemn string or piano passages weaving in and out of the fuzzy, snip-snapping clicks. There are also vocals on most of the songs; warm, but quiet and shy at the same time. While there are many emotional peaks, the music never reaches a point that you could call loud. Like Godspeed You! Black Emperor, the songs on Tripper build on themselves from nothing, and coast on their own momentum. Stylistically, it falls somewhere between Sigur Rós and múm, and if you like either of those two bands, Tripper should be how you first hear Efterklang.
1. Foetus (3:10)
2. Swarming (6:32)
3. Step Aside (4:38)
4. Prey and Predator (6:26)
5. Collecting Shields (5:57)
6. Doppelgänger (6:40)
7. Tortuous Tracks (3:39)
8. Monopolist (6:57)
9. Chapter 6 (6:37)
Tripper - Efterklang - 2004 - The Leaf Label