Following up on a debut album is always hard (or, so it could seem). Following up on a rather successful and critically acclaimed debut is even harder (or, so I would imagine), but that’s nonetheless the task Danish synth-pop quartet When Saints Go Machine were faced with when beginning the work on ‘Konkylie’, the followup to 2009s ‘Ten Makes A Face’.

Who are they?
Silas Moldenhawer, Jonas Kenton, Simon Muschinsky and Nikolaj Manuel Vonsild.

How’s the album?
Like ‘Ten Makes A Face’, ‘Konkylie’ (“conch”) kicks off on a synth ‘n vocal note, but where ‘Pinned’ soon picked up and turned in to a bit of a funky treat, the title track and album opener on this sophomore effort instead turn out a medieval chamber pop folk song with an intricate, moving vocal arrangement – and sets the tone and mood for the rest of the album. It is a downbeat, ambient affair, abandoning all ambitions for dance floor success (although quite a few of the 11 tracks do call for a remix), but it’s beautiful and excellently eclectic pretty much all the way through with a marvelous highlight in pizzicato album closer ‘Add Ends’. Not least because of singer Nikolaj Manuel Vonsild’s expressive vocal, in many ways similar to that of Antony Hegarty, which adds a touching melancholy to the lushly orchestrated synth-pop. If WSGM had any worries about having to follow up on the debut, they can put them to rest, because ‘Konkylie’ is in fact better…

Check them out if you like:
Japan, David Sylvian and Talk Talk.

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Genre: Alternative pop/Synth-pop
Who: When Saints Go Machine
Album: Konkylie
Label: EMI
Year: 2011
Country: Denmark
Language: English
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Recommended tracks:
Konkylie – Parix – Jets – Kelly – Add Ends