Efterklang - Piramida

Efterklang seem to have finally risen beyond comparisons. No longer is it good enough to say that their work is merely the produce of their influences. It seems that now we have a band finding their place, and they've never sounded so at ease. This album is like watching rain falling slowly on a lake, seeing the ripples interact, and not being able to take anything away from the natural sight in front of you. You daren't put your hand in the water, or else you'll disturb everything beautiful around you. Piramida is an album you couldn't take a single track, a single noise, away from, without changing something which comes across as so perfect in its pitch.

With trumpets blaring, gritty synth lines, thundering bass notes, ethereal vocals, shimmering strings, and punchy percussions throughout, each track stands as part of something greater. Piramida manages to keep its tone throughout, and with such a multitude of different sounds going on, it's a miracle that the album still manages to have a personal, and emotional connection with the listener, and it does. This is something very rare, and something which took me, personally, off guard. Previous Efterklang releases have stopped just short, due in part to rambling self-indulgence, misjudged sequences, and (sometimes) simply poor music, but Piramida stands tall, without ever looking down on anything else around it to see if it cares.

Sure, you know what, there are easy comparisons to make. 'Hollow Mountain' sounds like something off the xx's debut, 'Apples' sounds like the National at their most brooding, with 'Sedna' giving us Bon Iver at their most melancholic. 'The Ghost' is Radiohead at their most teasing, and yet given all of the above, the lingering fact of the matter is that Piramida is the culmination of these bands at their best. This is only more amazing given that Efterklang have never sounded so tightly woven together, with not a bar out of place. The risk is to now believe that this is Efterklang at their greatest, and, sure, it could be. This could be their album which every subsequent work is compared to.

It would be hard to see this album not making any end-of-year lists, partly down to the fact that this is one of the most beautiful albums to come out of 2012 so far, and also partly down to the fact that this is Efterklang's landmark album. This is an album for finding new sounds on every listen, an album that sums up the band's name perfectly (Efterklang translating to 'reverberation') with a swelling of noise that never grows too heavy, and an album that we honestly hope isn't the peak of their career. Let's hope that we look back on this album and see that it isn't perfect. Let's hope that they take all that they've done well with Piramida and blow our minds once again. However, if this is the best they've got, then they've created something special with Piramida regardless.

Rating: 9.5/10