Wednesday 27 January 2016

Single: Bear Worship - Our Friends / Pagodas

Bear Worship Our Friends


Bear Worship - Our Friends


Info: Dubliner Karl Knuttel, aka Bear Worship, has just released a double A-Side in 'Our Friends' / 'Pagodas', two wondrous slices of electronic dream pop that are an absolute feast for the ears. A debut album beckons in 2016 as well as a new video in February, in his own words; 'Bear Worship is about positivity and realism, love and friends, passion and nostalgia, and overcoming superstitions and harmful mindsets. Written and recorded out of necessity between mid-2014 and early 2015 during a period of intense anxiety and depression, the current crop of songs from Bear Worship are an attempt to grip on to the things that give life its meaning and to lift those things up in celebration.'

I'm an instant convert based on these two tracks, I listened to 'Our Friends' on loop last night, from the most surprisingly different vocals I've heard from an Irish musician in quite some time, to the over-powering sense of drama and a pervading feeling of exhilaration in the music it was a hook, line and sinker job for me. In it's quieter moment the music felt like Grizzly Bear on uppers, and the mood and wit was akin to Perfume Genius, there is a power behind every element of this song. 


Bear Worship - Pagodas

On 'Pagoda' Bear Worship presents a more synth and electronic based approach. I'm still getting my head around the landscape he's painting, the music doesn't sound like any of the following artists but it calls forth an image of John Lennon, Queen and Elton John composing an opus in a pod adrift in space with decidedly 70's attire and visuals, the whole thing from start to finish kind of has my head blown in the most enjoyable way possible. Bear Worship has gone well beyond superimposing one of his objectives, positivity, onto his music and has majestically converted happiness into sound as far as this listener is concerned. I've more than enough here but I'll take an album full of it if it's going! 

(also check out 'Shimmerings' a free download on his SoundCloud).

Both tracks are available on iTunes here 'Our Friends' & 'Pagoda'