Pikes (Sweden) – Slime (single)
Doesn’t time fly? I thought it was last year that Pikes (Christoffer Ling)was here but it turns out it was in the very early days of NMC, in October 2021, that he made his first appearance. The first song we wrote about then immediately identified him to me as being influenced by Peter Gabriel and Genesis; something that he openly admits to.
His philosophy is to create music “as a way of departing from an existence that was defined by rules and norms.” Doing your own thing, bro.
His music is “a mixture of synthesisers from the 80s, samples /organic drums and large orchestral soundscapes that come together in a sound that borders between pop and movie score” and his other influences are Frank Zappa and Kate Bush. Frank, Kate and Peter – they’d make some power trio wouldn’t they?
Every time I see ‘orchestral soundscapes’ and ‘movie scores’ my ears prick up. That’s my thing.
Of this song, ‘Slime’, he says, ‘Slime’ is about a slimy person. The story behind it is that I had up until a certain point thought that the Swedish word ”Inställsam” which means slimy instead meant unable to adjust / hard to adapt to change.
So I had been using it wrongly all my life, telling people that I was slimy and nobody ever corrected me. (Folk can be bitches, can’t they?) So I wanted to write a song about a slimy person, and try to get into that mindset. I sometimes wish I could act a part or be more agreeable and slimy in order to get what I need. I also wish I would stop talking myself down when I talk about what I do best. But I guess that’s a Swedish thing.”
Yes, isn’t it the Law of Jante or something like that? The unwritten code by which all Swedes are expected to behave publicly? Not to boast or otherwise big themselves up? I wish we had it here.
And while I’m on this rant I‘ll suggest that Pikes checks out politicians in the UK if he’s looking for slime balls. He’d find enough material for 10 double-sided albums.
The song isn’t at all what I was expecting. You won’t find much of Peter, Kate or Frank in ‘Slime’, nor Bon Iver, with whom he’s also compared. There are no movie scores either It’s an upbeat, in-your-face jazz-pop banger, which, apart from a very short Gabriel-like intro and outro, reminded me more of Propaganda, the art rock band von Düsseldorf, which is still going I think, and their seminal effort ‘Duel’.
Even the bridge could be that of ‘Duel’ transposed from piano to percussion.
Unfortunately there’s no lyric sheet and with the best will in the world I can’t decipher the lyrics, apart from odd words like “hustle my way to your heart” and “…falling apart”, which are otherwise lost in the general melee.
Pikes reveals another string to his bow here; a surprising one but it’s highly effective and addictive.
Slime’ is released on 10th February on ART:ERY MUSIC GROUP.https://open.spotify.com/album/4rgTwAiy9kGEloXFFu2fhS?si=zQJIzIfjTqSOzqhpjxhguw
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