Two years after its initial release in their home country of Iceland, Pornopop’s And The Slow Songs About The Dead Calm In Her Arms is finally being properly dropped on American shores on Dynamophone – and not a moment too soon. In 2004, it had been seven years since the release of their first album, Blue, making this release ripe for evolution of their increasingly representative Icelandic sound. As it turned out, the Einarsson brothers created audio velvet with slow, Matmosian electronica and lulling, magnetic vocal effects. Whatever the name Pornopop might mean to you, this isn’t pop, and it’s definitely not porno. It’s the slowest, darkest bedroom scene you’ll ever see on a big screen.
The melancholy pace of And The Slow Songs About The Dead Calm In Her Arms shapes the scene for the slow-motion ride through a superlunar Icelandic landscape. The energy isn’t merely subtle, it’s just slow and operatic – like the soundtrack to a delicate science fiction. Synthetic, alien beats bounce under tranquil, atmospheric guitars and strings while halogen vocals practically force your eyes closed.
At its most intense, the album gets noisy instead of fast, but always dark. "Death Tape" builds into an electronic maelstrom, complete with swirling effects and a yelling background voice, but always crawls along. Most tracks still move like the eye of a hurricane. "Centre" has wispy vocals and an occasional hollow, mechanized beat. It’d be hard to believe any track ever reaches 90 bpm. "Wired To The Cold Metallic Scene" closes the album with a glitchy lullaby, with liquid voices intertwining and piano drips like a melting icicle.
While they get intense at times, Pornopop never rushes And The Slow Songs About The Dead Calm In Her Arms. It’s for when the lights are off, but with nothing else going on. Half-frozen guitars and chilly beats are the hallmark of their northern sound. The visuals it conjures are minimal, unlike the videos of their namesake. Pornopop must surely mean something completely different in Icelandic.
