Propan — Swagger
Propan are an Oslo-based female vocal duo, and Swagger is the pair’s third full-length release. And it’s fair to say it’s a genre and mood darting ride, that moves from the alienly playful, onto the groovy and manic, through to lushly to eerily ambient.
The release appears on Norway’s Sofa- a label who have a true talent for tracking down the more creative and distinctive in modern composition/ sound making. The album comes in the form of an eleven-track CD- this comes presented in a six-panel digipak, which features on its outside a photo of a sea of rippled, pulled together, and fold clustered grey fabric. Within black texts/ diagrams on an orange backdrop. So, another arty/ nicely presented release from the label.
Starting in 2017 Propan brings together Ina Sagstuen & Natali Abrahamsen Garner- with their two previous albums being 2017’s Baby on Va Fongool, and 2019’s Trending on Sofa. This new release sees them been joined by the following Fredrik Rasten- acoustic guitar, Double Bass, Electric Bass – Magnus S. Nergaard, Drums, Percussion – Jan Martin Gismervik, Electric Guitar – Anton Toorell. With the album bringing together pre-scored and improvised material.
The eleven tracks are titled with roman numerals and letters- with each having a runtime between just under a minute and nearing six minutes. And as already mentioned this is a decidedly unpredictable release- which flits through moods and genres in a lazy to at points darting manner. Proceedings are opened up with the rising ambient hover to spacey simmer/ quirky space whisper of “A I”. Switching pace, we have the tapping bass meets warbling to swooning vocal “A III” , and manic textural gallop, electro warble, baying to groaning vocals of “A IV”.
Moving into the second half of the album we have the squelching tip-tap electronics, chanting-to-soothing vocals, and mellow guitar pick ‘n’ dart of “B II”. There’s the quirky textural bubbling meets wacky speeding high pitched vocal stretch ‘n’ clucks of “B IV”. With the album playing out with “B VI” which starts with a blend of slide guitar simmer, stabbing synth tone, and scuttling electronics with subtle vocal detail appearing later.
Swagger is a daring and often unpredictable album, which pulls you through a selection of different moods and vibes- really making for true sonic adventure. To find out more/ and or buy direct drop by here.