Late Night Venture deliver Dark Pop in ample doses on their newest album. It's something of a cross between Sigur Ros's atmospheric explorations and Smashing Pumpkins namesake power, minus Billy Corgan's wrenching vocals and lyrics. Hailing from Denmark the band tries, much like Sigur Ros did with Iceland, to craft a sound that derives itself more from the country than it does from their ambitions. The success of Late Night Venture limits itself with S¿ren Hartvig's song writing and the band's inability to make each song a separate work, but they prove they are capable of making music that is both harmonious and emotionally interesting.



With four members LNV uses rattling bass lines (Jens Back), distorted guitars (S¿ren Hartvig), pianos (Jonas Qvesel), and an ominous beat (Peter Falch) to construct their enchanting music. The group attempts to create what it may feel like to enter a light. The songs are all very dark and brooding. They feel sometimes as though they don't have a bottom, as if they are floating in space. For western ears this may be something they aren't so used to, but the raw and almost violent emotive energy is admirable.



The opening, "Condition Lost", barrages the listener with an alarming piano progression and then introduces the various pieces that will make up the sound for the entirety of the album. Once the ride cymbal chimes in and the guitar starts belting out melodies over a pounding rhythm it all becomes very invigorating. The vocals are a little fuzzy and distant but give the sound a feeling of watching ghosts on a T.V. screen. The nice thing about the music is it's contrasts to beauty and the depths of sadness; always there is a slight beacon of light and, like a wall of fire flies, one by one things become illuminated until you are face to face with an explosion of light. I can't help but make the comparisons to Sigur Ros and their own blinding light.



On songs such as "Pay The Moon", LNV allows synths and tingling guitars to shatter a dark abode into a stunning and often times cheery ballad of emotion. The vocals of S¿ren Hartvig at once destroy the beauty of the music and then carry it into the distant realms of its beauty. With a chorus such as "To tell you I hate you/To tell you I want to kill you" only diminishes the power of the sound which LNV carry so wonderfully. When he tears out some of his more sincere notes and visionary images the circle then becomes complete.



With such a strong sense of arrangement and harmony LNV promises to flourish well into the future if they can continue to develop in the same streams as Sigur Ros, the notable comparison to this brand of music. Wether it be Dark Pop, Alternative Electro Pop, Nordic Dark Voice, or Underground Vibrato Exalted Sound Of Heavenly Masses, it sounds potent and it reaches into you. You can't help but feel something twitch inside when you listen to the imploding sounds of Late Night Venture.



Track Listing

1 condition Lost

2 So Far

3 Pay The Moon

4 Laxy Star

5 Heatherhill

6 Peace Fountains

7 After

8 Modesto

9 Tahoe Morning Diner

10 Drift In A Slipstream

11 One Night All Tres Blossom