The Garden of Sweden Album Review

With all the advances of modern computer technology, and the growing sophistication of home DAW’s (Digital Audio Workstations) anybody with time and a computer can make music.

While this and Radiohead’s wry observation Anyone Can Play Guitar may be romantic notions, don’t forget these philosophies saw the birth of Bieber as “musician” (in very heavy parenthesis).

Also from this philosophy and a bedroom somewhere in Auckland comes the music of Social Shun, the upside of giving the philosopher’s stone that is music engineering to the people.

Somewhere between the Outsider Music of Wesley Willis and David Lynch’s eclectic Crazy Clown Time, Social Shun’s debut, The Garden of Sweden is a multi-genre mishmash of lo-fi electro-punk. Layered waves of sine, saw and square twisted to the point of destruction over a textured soundscape of dark ambience and sonic artifacts.

While it’s not the musical aesthetic America has feed us for decades there is a lot artistic merit in The Garden of Sweden. This underground counter culture of obscure music is something we’ve been missing since Punk went Pop in the 90s and Black Metal became all the rage.

Don’t understand? It doesn’t matter. This music was made to clear the artist’s head, not enrich yours, but if you find something in it, all the better.

As vanity project with a focus on catharsis, Social Shun is something I can relate to, being a one man music machine myself.

I write this awash with nostalgia. I saw my primordial self in the music of Social Shun, the days before Fruity Loops when my instrument was Midi. I was caught by the siren’s call of verse chorus verse structure and 4/4 timing, but I hope Social Shun never is. We need artists that stay true to their ideals and aesthetics and show us that there is still such a thing as freedom.

The Garden of Sweden is recommended if you liked Christopher Young’s soundtrack to the movie Sinister, Mr. Oizo and music that’s a little outside of ordinary.

The Garden of Sweden is available from the Social Shun Bandcamp (http://socialshun.bandcamp.com/)