Dureforsog - Exploring Beauty
by Cila Warncke
published: 17 / 12 / 2001

Label:
Kool Arrow
Format: CD
intro
Imagine a sonic pile-up involving Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Joy Division (sans the ghost of Ian Curtis), Nine Inch Nails and darkest Depeche Mode and suddenly 'Exploring Beauty', the recent release
Imagine a sonic pile-up involving Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Joy Division (sans the ghost of Ian Curtis), Nine Inch Nails and darkest Depeche Mode and suddenly 'Exploring Beauty', the recent release from the moody young Danes of Düreforsög, will start to make sense – sort of. Taking an obvious delight in setting up dark, delicate soundscapes and then battering them down with howls, growls and waves of distortion, Düreforsög has made an album that is almost impossible to take seriously. Unless of course their target audience is the sort of willfully disaffected, Goth obsessed fifteen year-old for whom Placebo lyrics are too complex. With vocalist Boriz S snarling out lines like, “I’d kill for family dinner / and I’m desperate for a T-bone” the temptation to hit the stop button is overwhelming – except for the lingering fear that maybe he’s being ironic, and to turn it off would be an admission of woeful un-coolness. Unfortunately, 'Exploring Beauty' offers little more than the possible benefit of feeling clever for ‘getting’ it. There are snippets of enchanting sound, but they are too far between – and feel too accidental – to be compelling. For the most part the album reeks of over-exertion. It feels like the band doesn’t trust the music enough to be led by it; instead they throw layers of noise over anything that has any promise of being introspective or thought-provoking. Even the stand-out track “Living in Vain” which sounds like the bastard child of “Atmosphere” and “Master and Servant” (in a good way) collapses under the weight of Boriz S’s nonsensical navel gazing. All in all, this record is best left out for the kids… it’ll keep them from nicking and scratching up your Placebo CDs
Track Listing:-
1 Space Lonelines2 Beach
3 Ghost Chills
4 In My Shoe
5 Smile
6 Rubber Man
7 To Turn the World Inside Out
8 Prima Ballerina
9 Living in Vain
10 Honeybee
digital downloads
reviews |
Engine Machine (2002) |
![]() |
Experimental, but slightly uninspired second album on the Kool Arrow label from Danish Quartet, Dureforsog |
most viewed articles
current edition
Sarah Cracknell - InterviewDouglas MacIntyre - Interview
Jann Klose - Sugar My
Jimmy Webb - (With support from Ashley Campbell and Thor Jenson), Cadogan Hall, London. 27/5/2022
Jarvis Cocker - Good Pop Bad Pop - An Exhibition of Objects and Keepsakes of Jarvis Cocker
Loop - Interview
Tom Newman - Interview
Rolling Stones - Anfield, Liverpool, 9/6/2022
Simply Red - La Marina, Valencia, Spain, 7/6/2022
Dwina Gibb - Interview
most viewed reviews
current edition
Def Leppard - Diamond Star HalosLucky Ones - Slow Dance, Square Dance, Barn Dance
Various - Heroes & Villains – The Sound Of Los Angeles 1965-1968,
Dave Stewart - Ebony McQueen
Bonnie Raitt - Just Like That...
Emile Sande - Let's Say For Instance
Gabi Garbutt and the Illuminations - Cockerel
Girls At Our Best! - Pleasure
Soup Review - Go and See
Norah Jones - Come Away With Me: 20th Anniversary Edition
Pennyblackmusic Regular Contributors
Adrian Janes
Amanda J. Window
Andrew Twambley
Anthony Dhanendran
Benjamin Howarth
Cila Warncke
Daniel Cressey
Darren Aston
Dastardly
Dave Goodwin
Denzil Watson
Dominic B. Simpson
Eoghan Lyng
Fiona Hutchings
Harry Sherriff
Helen Tipping
Jamie Rowland
John Clarkson
Julie Cruickshank
Kimberly Bright
Lisa Torem
Maarten Schiethart