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CMU Approved
Approved: Scarlet Chives
By Andy Malt | Published on Tuesday 21 February 2012
Formerly known as Majorian, Scarlet Chives released their eponymous debut album in their native Denmark a year ago this month. A milestone they marked with two shows at last week’s by:Larm festival in Oslo, one of which I managed to catch, squeezing into the tightly packed Rockefeller Annex venue.
Subsequently I’ve learned that the band features Brian Batz, whose solo project Sleep Party People recently appeared in this very column too. Scarlet Chives is a very different beast though. The diverse vocals of frontwoman Maria Mortensen – for whom I’ve been failing to come up with a better description than ‘an indie Cher Lloyd crossed with Björk and Kate Bush’ since Friday – move from pop to the fringes of opera, and roll across the band’s music, which itself can switch from twinkling guitar pop to ferocious, percussive rock in a very short space of time.
You can hear the album in full here, or check out the video for single, ‘Don’t You Put Your Hands There’, below.