Saputospace

So this is just a good song, a good music video and a good vibe all around. Hope you enjoy.

From the album Healing Music (2012)

Review:

With a name like ‘Healing Music’, you might expect Finnish creatures Zebra & Snake to have created an album that, well, heals. And whilst it might not be the kind of music to cure your hangover so much as cause it from all the drinking and dancing, the name matches the themes and sounds pretty well.

Following on from the duo’s ‘Sweetest Treasure’ EP, the debut album is more of the same driving synths and anthemic vocals that made you like them in the first place. In this case, it’s very hard to see how you could possibly have too much of a good thing. Tracks like ‘The Bride’, which is sandwiched between two tracks from the aforementioned EP are just simply fantastic, building up sombre beats beneath a layer of synth like a warped wedding march. The themes of ‘Healing Music’ are obvious from the lyrics – going through bad times and coming out alive at the end, healed.

Zebra & Snake introduce us to another animal in ‘White Shark’, providing us with a rarer quiet moment on the album. Topio’s strong, masculine vocals take the forefront ahead of shimmering tambourine taps as he sings “We had no choice” with a mournful ache. But like much of the album, the song is a process, as it develops an almost tropical beat in the last minute. This is no ordinary pop album. ‘Sickness’, the penultimate track on ‘Healing Music’, is tender and presents a fragile relationship, as Topio sings “You have a sickness we can’t see” over backing “oohs”. But it’s immediately followed up by the driving, pulsating title track, ending the album on a strangely twisted dark high. There’s something eerily sensuous about the line “I can see you / You can’t see me.”

Through all its highs and lows, ‘Healing Music’ will make you feel better. And that’s as good an excuse as any to listen to it.

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