Serena Maneesh

Serena Maneesh is a cult-favourite Norwegian 6-piece band whose self-titled debut was included in Pitchfork's Top 30 albums of 2005 and most of the band's '05 was spent touring the US and Europe with Dandy Warhols.

The eleven songs found here slide down a razor's edge of distortion and pop whimsy, raucous guitar work and underwater static, angelic voices and primal screams. The strange melodies are strikingly original, yet comfortingly familiar. The lyrics are written in English - taking liberties with structure and image, fully tilting the listener upside down.

Inspired by everything from Gershwin to Southern blues to Neu!, Serena Maneesh is as much about exploring sound as crafting song. The meticulous compositions of head Serena, Emil Nikolaisen, create tuneful paradoxes, balancing whispery female vocals and underlying cello with driving guitar rock, distorted samples and chant-like repetition, like a liquid noise.

Recorded in half a year in various locations, such as Steve Albini's Electrical Audio Studio in Chicago; mixed by, among others, Martin Bisi [Swans, Sonic Youth]; and featuring the likes of Sufjan Stevens and Daniel Smith [Danielson Famile], 'Serena Maneesh' is released on brand new Beggars imprint, PlayLouderecordings, a natural extension of playlouder.com.

Full of both mystery and grace, 'Serena Maneesh' sees a feminine reflection emerge through the lush pop and lonely distortion. As the shriek's of the final track here yield to the hushed, hymn-like tones of a piano, it sounds as though the pianist has forgotten himself, playing alone in a cathedral to a half-remembered song… alone but for the angels swinging from the chandeliers…