Mammùt Share New Track "Breathe Into Me" || Announce New Album 'Kinder Versions' Out 7/14 On Bella Union
Icelandic bands often resemble a force of nature, and Mammút
are no exception. Today the band are thrilled to announce their spectacular new
album Kinder Versions that is due for release on July 14th through Bella Union.
Alongside this announcement Mammút have shared the powerful first track from
the album, entitled “Breathe Into Me", which is streaming HERE.
Mammút is Icelandic for ‘mammoth’ – the name that singer
Katrína Mogensen “plucked out of the air” when she joined guitarists Alexandra
Baldursdóttir and Arnar Pétursson, bassist Ása Dýradóttir and drummer Andri
Bjartur Jakobsson for their stage debut, aged just 14. Katrína is the daughter
of bassist Birgir Mogensen, a former bandmate of Björk back when they were
young post-punk adventurers; a questing spirit that Mammút have also
unconsciously adopted, though without ever really discussing what kind of music
they play. “We’re so close as a band, we have no limits for each other, no
boundaries, we just follow our gut instincts,” says Katrína.
It worked from the off; they quickly won the Músíktilraunir
‘battle of the bands’ and thereafter nominations and awards at the Icelandic
Music Awards: their third album Komdu til Mín Svarta Systir won three of its
eight nominations in 2014, including Album (Pop & Rock) and Song (Pop &
Rock) for their epically slow-burning ‘Salt’. And with vocalist Katrína now
singing in English, there’s a chance much more of the planet will discover what
their homeland has known for a while.
Kinder Versions intense character is obvious from the
get-go, with opening tracks “We Tried Love” and the title track the album’s two
longest, at over seven and six minutes respectively, embodying everything that
is thrilling about Mammút’s ebbing and flowing dynamic. “With those lyrics and
the soundscape, those songs had to be the introduction,” Katrína vouches. “And
with the [the sparser, gentler] ‘Bye Bye’ following, it’s the most honest way
into the album.”
Mammút’s shows at last November’s Iceland Airwaves festival
solicited rave reviews from The Arts Desk - “Hard-edged, rocky, circular songs
with folky, spiritual melodies… Unreservedly fantastic” - and Rolling Stone, which
referred to Katrína’s “icy, piercing vengeance” and the music’s “arena-worthy,
shamanistic hard rock.”
Mammút will be one of three acts appearing on Bella Union's
mini-tour later this month in Europe alongside
their label-mates Pavo Pavo and Will Stratton, which marks the beginning of the
label’s 20th Anniversary celebrations. They will also be appearing at Bella
Union’s night at The Great Escape.
Kinder Versions
track listing:
1. We Tried Love
2. Kinder Versions
3. Bye Bye
4. The Moon Will Never Turn On Me
5. Breathe Into Me
6. Walls
7. What’s Your Secret
8. Pray For Air
9. Sorrow
Pre-order Kinder
Versions on iTunes
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