Syme

A band I only recently began listening to (and has left me wishing I started earlier,) Norwegian quartet, Syme, mixes layered harmonies with infectious melodies to create some truly indelible music. Fredrik Vogsborg and Ketil Endresen’s falsetto vocals make these electronic pop ditties hard not to enjoy, as the music sounds cute and refreshing. While Syme seems to create effortless songs, the lyrics are far from simple. Metaphorical and subtly dark, the words dont match the effervescent sound. And that’s perfectly okay with me. To make a sound happy yet imply something further is impressive, and Syme does just that. Making them impressive. (If A=B and B=C, then A=C. You+Me=Us.)

Listen to one of my favorites, and their most popular song (albeit a David Bowie cover), “Modern Love”. Cascading instrumentals and outstanding harmonies make this a stand-out.

Syme – “Modern Love” (mp3)

(Syme released their critically acclaimed debut album, Swing Swing, in 2005. They were to release a follow-up, No Spark, No Heart in the spring of ’08 but I haven’t heard anything about it. Does anyone know what happened or if it’s out there? I’ll talk to Syme and try to figure it out in the meantime.)

UPDATE: Thanks to reader mainman69:  2 members of Syme are currently touring with their other band Casiokids, suppporting Of Montreal. Check out their MySpace. Syme apparently has nothing in the works at the moment.

NEW UPDATE: Syme was nice enough to let me know what the deal is: “Actually, it is a good question. No spark album is only in the recording phase still. Due to family and other project obligations, Syme will not be able to finish the studio sessions until after this coming Summer unfortunately. We played a gig the 27th of December 08. Hope to add some livevideo to myspace soon.”