Serena-Maneesh are a band from Oslo that have been going for quite a while, without having released much - they've only released 2 albums since the release of their debut EP, 'Fixxations', in 2002. They made enough of an impression with that EP that they managed to get a slightly larger release for their debut album proper, garnering large amounts of praise from sites like Pitchfork and DrownedInSound (although don't hold that against it) and appearing in many end-of-year lists. Sufjan Stevens even collaborated on the album, which was released just a month after '... Illinois'.
This song is from that debut EP, and showcases what they're good at - it is a song that blends dreamy, almost shoegazey, sections with down 'n' dirty garage rock. Obviously, you can hear a lot of My Bloody Valentine in there, but I'd say there is just as much 'I'm Waiting For The Man'-style Velvet Underground throb. They also seem to me to take something from that most Scandinavian of genres, black and/or death metal (I'm not well enough versed in that subculture to tell the difference between the two) - nothing that makes it in any way unlistenable, but there is definitely a kind of tension behind the music (especially in the second half of the song, and more so on some of the tracks on their debut album proper) that you wouldn't get on an American shoegaze album, for example.
Serena-Maneesh – Hear Bleed Philharmonic
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