‘Money Never Dreams’ from ‘Imaginations' by Molly Nilsson
'Our Twisted Love’ from 'Our Twisted Love' E.P. by Rose McDowall
Does Molly Nilsson’s music belong to some snappily titled movement/genre/clique? I have no idea. Nor do I even know who might decide such things or invent such genres/cliques nowadays. Perhaps it is no-one. Perhaps it is everyone. Perhaps it does not even matter.
If I were to invent a genre for Molly Nilsson’s music it would be something along the lines of Monochrome ElectroPop for Digital Daydreamers. Black and White Bedroom TechnoPop for Analogue Auteurs. Pared Back SynthPop for 23rd Century Punks. You get the picture, and the picture would be angular two-dimensional black and white. Of course.
The Pop in all of those imaginary genres is crucial of course, for all of Molly Nilsson’s records have been infused with the spirit of Pop, where Pop is about being succinct and catchy. They are records locked in a universe of 1980 Eternal where Gary Numan is starring in Telekon and The Human League are Traveloguing into a future decorated with fading photographs of last tangos in Paris. ‘Imaginations’ then imagines all this and more, infusing songs with global and personal politics which simultaneously come across as intensely passionate and determinedly detached. Computer Love for Contemporary Activists. No more and certainly no less.
So fitting that Nilsson’s records have for some time been jointly issued by Night School records out of Glasgow, a label that has persistently shown itself to be of the highest calibre and the most excellent taste. No surprise then that Night School has also been the vehicle through which new recordings by Rose McDowall appeared this past year. ‘Our Twisted Love’ followed Night School’s reissue of McDowall’s glorious ‘Cut With The Cake Knife’ collection, and the release of delicious old Strawberry Switchblade demos on delectable transparent 7” vinyl. With more of a nod perhaps to the darker realms of Spell than the lighter textures of Strawberry Switchblade, ‘Our Twisted Love’ is an extended drone driven piece that mesmerises with a cool eye and a shadowy insistence. It draws us in, envelopes us in spirals of cloud and seduces us with squalls of snow. It’s like falling into a television screen tuned to static interference, helplessly following a eerily hypnotic refrain that haunts our reveries. Dark magic. No more and certainly no less.
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