Swedish musicians Fredrik Lindson and Torbjörn Håkansson have been making music as The Embassy since 1999, mixing indiepop, balearic house and a love of New Order into their own unique style. They’re contemporaries of The Radio Dept and have gained cult status almost immediately, influencing a bunch of other Scandinavian bands over the years, including Jens Lekman and The Tough Alliance. E-Numbers is the Gothenburg duo’s fifth album and finds them still at the top of their game. Read our review and listen to the album below.
Fredrik and Torbjörn were nice enough to take us track by track through E-Numbers, explaining how everything from provacateur Chris Morris, author Yukio Mishima, The KLF, The Housemartins and more influenced the album. Read that below.
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THE EMBASSY – E-NUMBERS TRACK BY TRACK
Escape
Funky melancholia. And Chris Morris tells you how it is by pointing towards Jean Baudrillard’s “There cannot be a real catastrophe because we live under the signs of virtual catastrophe.”
Control
From the beginning a stripped down guitar song that transformed into a slow steady groove. The lyrics, “ambience and control / got nowhere to” derives from city planning and the term “soft exclusion.” How to get rid of unwanted people just by making them feel unwanted.
Amnesia
A melancholy house-tune about memory loss and reawakening. The sheeps recorded on a countryside farm are probably all dead, reminding us of the ever ongoing animal mass-slaughter. Also a wink to “Sheep” by The Housemartins and of course The KLF sacrificing a sheep leaving the message “I died for ewe – bon appetit.”
Renegades
Life is often grim and dull and the world is just a harsh place. But we strive in this, going nowhere, related and blessed singing – Three cheers for us!
Violence
A gloomy post-punk-tune fueled by violence. Jamming away in the darkest Gothenburg winter while reading Sun and Steel by Yukio Mishima and listening to slavic requiems.
Not Here
Embassy has never been about comfort. We like situations that are uncomfortable and eerie, and it’s our subconscious attraction to awkwardness that brought us together. This feedback dream is a song about taking detours — lose yourself and never look back.
Frantic
A homage to those who take the fight and keep questioning human life.
Dream On
A buoyant-decadent house-anthem that gave birth to our new label. Tended to induce reverie, mental drift and dream on.
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