HARLEM WHITE MIND ALBUM GRAMME RELEASE: MARCH 3, 2003 REVIEW: APRIL 27, 2003

How should I describe the sound of Harlem? Rock’n’roll vocals with monotone and sparse electronic soundscapes underneath perhaps. Especially the singing actually reminds me of Underworld in some cases. Harlem is Johan Skugge and Martin Thomasson, with history in Yvonne and Rockmonster, and now they decided to make a kind of rock album. At least that is what they had originally planned, but they soon discovered that guitars weren’t needed. In the accompanying press release they claim that they want to re/deconstruct the rock’n’roll expressions. I don’t really know what that means, but it sure doesn’t sound as rock to me.
Harlem has really taken monotony to the extreme, and regular song structures are nowhere to be seen. In “Saturday Night/Neon Light” and “Your Body Lies” this works well, creating a very suggestive and interesting sound with minimal synths and beats, but in most cases I find myself skipping tracks. I usually don’t have anything against monotone music, heck I even enjoy The Klinik, but I need something to cling on to. In fact, some tracks are quite similar to Klinik, just worse.

JOHAN CARLSSON