Na Na Ni

We Say...

Review by Corey DuBrowa

Funny how during this era of diminished dreams and drastic economic downsizing (Hummer anyone? 'Cuz we got 'em here, cheap), large indie ensembles a la the Polyphonic Spree have become, uh, bigger than ever. Whether flaunting a spiritual halo (like Los Angeles' Bodies of Water), hurriedly spending their Canadian arts grants (such as Broken Social Scene or one of the Toronto community's bazillion splinter projects) or taking advantage of legendarily generous local labor laws (such as the decidedly un-Catalan I'm From Barcelona, whose membership swelled to 29 contributors on its debut recording), the New Law of Big Numbers has given rise to groups such as Sweden's Fredrik, a duo that began simply enough as an offshoot of indie-electro combo The LK but began ballooning to its present sextet size the minute the studio doors were flung open.

The group's preferred M.O. is somewhat typical of the Large Band mentality in that various obscure instruments and approaches are employed throughout the album's eleven tracks (vibraphone, multi-part vocal harmonies, strings of various shapes and sizes), all backed by martial beats given voice by an orchestra of drums, creating the impression of what a toy marching band raised on a steady diet of DeVotchka and Fairport Convention might sound like. But that doesn't account for songs like "Hei Hei" (a tidy bit of Japanimation fluttering by in the breeze of the album's first third), "1986" (perhaps New Order's most pastoral song) or "11 Years" (hey, who the hell let Elliott Smith in here, anyway?), all of which stray significantly from any sort of pre-made playbook that multi-instrumentalist Fredrik or his The LK compatriot Lindefelt might have dreamed up. Na Na Ni is instantly likeable puzzle-pop with a couple of pieces lost — a prismatic, unapologetically weird survey of the musical landscape circa 2008, given a steroid bath of instrumentation that nevertheless sounds deliciously smaller than the sum of its many parts.